CHEAP POWER

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 11 - The cost of electricity is set to come down significantly this month, signaling a welcome reprieve for consumers whose bills shot up last year due to low water levels at hydro generation stations.

Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) Managing Director Engineer Joseph Njoroge said on Tuesday that the country was now generating more power from the hydro dams which have filled up due to the on-going rains.

“The current bill that we are sending (for April), the fuel cost charge is Sh4.98 (per kilowatt-hour), which means that we have had a very significant reduction of almost Sh3 which works out at almost 40 percent,” he said.

In November the fuel cost, which is a major component in the computation of the bill was at Sh7.90 per kilowatt-hour which translated in very high power bills.

The on going rains have however seen KenGen’s Dam, which is the reservoir of downstream dams on Tana River fill up which means that the generator use minimal emergence power.

Mr Njoroge said the bill will come down further in coming months as KenGen is expected to increase hydro generation which is cheaper than thermal production.

The company, he said, would retire purchase of 100Megawatts (MW) of emergency power in the next two months. Already the government has retired 110 MW out of the 250MW provided by Aggreko.