ERC wants to take over suit against raised power bills

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) wants to determine a suit challenging new electricity tariffs that raised bills for middle class homes by up to 54 per cent.

The ERC, in court papers, argues that it is mandated to investigate consumer complaints and disputes relating to use and pricing of electricity, adding that lawyer Apollo Mboya jumped the gun by going to the High Court instead of the commission.

“The spirit of the law dictates that the court should not be invited to transform itself or take over a policy implementing body’s role whenever it is handling any matter,” the ERC says in court papers adding that the case should be dismissed.

ERC also argues that the first review was conducted in 2008 which resulted in a five-year tariff that lapsed in 2013. New tariffs took effect on August 1.

“Accordingly, by July/August 2018 the five-year period for the tariff structure set in 2013 had lapsed and the tariff structure was ripe for review,” ERC says in response to the case.

READ: Lawyer sues over new Kenya Power tariffs

According to Mr Mboya, the new tariffs announced on July 30, are discriminative against the poor and a significant majority of the domestic consumers while favouring bulk power consumers such as manufacturers. “It is only manufacturers who consume bulk power that will see a significant saving when they adjust their production plans to use power at night when the rest of the country is asleep, power that goes to waste anyway,” he said.

Poor households that consume less than 10 units of electricity per month and the very rich who burn more than 1,500 units are, however, set to enjoy lower bills under the new tariff structure.

In the new plan, homes that consume 50 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per month will pay 54 per cent more at Sh1,067 in August, up from sh695 in July. Consumers of 200 units of power will pay Sh4,268 a month, up from Sh4,121 in July.

A user of 10 units, for instance, will now pay Sh169 a month, down from the previous Sh278, representing a 39 per cent cutback. The rich have also emerged as winners of the new billing regime.