KPLC’s Future Existence Threatened By Solar Companies in Kenya.

• • According to KPLC’s latest annual report, the heavy consuming industries who account for 54.8% of its revenues have shifted their attention to solar energy.
  • Kenya Power says the latest growth in demand remained at approximately 2.3% in 2020, which is lower compared to the historical 10-year average of 5.9 %.
  • The Treasury’s disclosures to Parliament showed that KPLC returned a net loss of Sh2.98 billion in the financial year ended June 2020.

The Kenya power and lighting company (KPLC) has raised an alarm over the shift of their consumer’s demand to solar power energy which they now deem cheap and reliable.

This comes even as the electricity distributor continues to suffer from low revenues due to the Covid-19 pandemic and increased cost of purchasing wholesale power from firms like KenGen.

According to the company’s latest annual report, the heavy consuming industries who account for 54.8% of its revenues have shifted their attention to solar energy which has now lead to huge losses.

“The company operated in a challenging environment over the financial year under review, where demand growth at 3.7 percent remained below the projected level of five percent,” read the report.

The reduced demand growth is further compounded with increased threats of grid defection by the industrial category as decentralized renewable energy options are becoming more available and cheaper as per the report.

The electricity to solar migration which has come in the wake of excess production of electricity has also dealt the firm a further blow.

In October 2020, the company’s power generation increased by one billion Kilowatt-hours thus amounting to financial pressure on the power supplier which is currently paying huge volumes of unused electricity.

Kenya Power says the latest growth in demand remained at approximately 2.3% in 2020, which is lower compared to the historical 10-year average of 5.9 %.

Currently, more companies, factories, and universities have continued to embrace solar power supply to ensure reliable supply and reduced costs. 

Power Struggle Continues.

In the financial year 2019/2020 KPLC reported the first loss in 17 years pushing the power supplier to raise retail tariffs for homes and businesses to improve performance.

The Treasury’s disclosures to Parliament showed that the electricity monopoly returned a net loss of Sh2.98 billion in the financial year ended June 2020.

The company is also alleged to be facing challenges in payment collection from defaulters who owed them over Sh 5.2 billion as of December 2019.

KPLC however is yet to give its official statement on the just concluded financial year report.

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