Electricity imports between January and March this year hit an all-time high, as the country increasingly turned to Ethiopia and Uganda even as generation from the dams started picking up.
Kenya imported 408.78 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) from the two countries in the period, a 41.7 per cent rise from 288.3 GWh shipped in the same period last year, according to official data.
Power imports, which cost Kenya Power an estimated Sh4.23 billion in the period under review, helped lower reliance on dirty thermal plants to meet rising demand and reduced the cost, given that hydro-power is the cheapest electricity.
Power bills fell by an average of Sh1 per unit last month, marking the second consecutive month. Domestic consumers who had paid Sh32 a unit in January enjoyed a drop to Sh29 per unit in February.
“Power bills are going to continue falling given that hydro generation is increasing at the major dams like Masinga following the heavy rains. Imports from Ethiopia are also helping us lower the cost of electricity,” Daniel Kiptoo, Director General of Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority said last week.
Generation from the country’s dams had been battered last year due to a long drought but picked up from November and is expected to remain on the rise in the coming months. For example, Kenya generated 291.10 GWh from dams last month, compared to 205.28 GWh in October last year.
Increased share of hydro and a fall in contribution from thermal plants, cut fuel surcharge to Sh3.64 last month from Sh4.14 in February.
Electricity imports accounted for 12.01 per cent of the 3,401.26 GWh available to Kenya Power between January and March, while geothermal was the highest at 40.1 per cent followed by hydro at 24.08 per cent and wind (14.62 per cent).
Increased electricity imports have been key to averting outages given the rising power demand in the economy. Demand hit a new peak of 2,177. 13 Megawatts on February 24.
A unit of electricity imported cost Sh9.66 last month, being the second cheapest behind locally generated hydropower which costs Sh2.94 per unit.
Thermal power remained the costliest at Sh23.84 a unit followed by biogas at Sh14.33 and wind at Sh13.97. A unit of geothermal power cost Sh10.96 last month.
Kenya inked a deal to import electricity from Ethiopia from November 2022, with the power priced at $0.065 (Sh10.2) per kilowatt but Kenya is keen to renegotiate the tariff from 2027 at the earliest in line with the agreement.
The country has also been in a power exchange deal with Uganda but Kenya has for the better part been the net importer of electricity from Kampala. The country that imports more from each other pays at the end of a given period.
