Hundreds of thousands of present Kenya Energy prospects will probably be tied to the facility utility indefinitely regardless of the State opening up the electrical energy distribution market to different companies.
The Vitality (Electrical energy Market, Bulk Provide and Open Entry) Rules, 2024 have barred the present Kenya Energy prospects from decamping to different companies set to enter the electrical energy distribution area.
Vitality Cupboard Secretary Davis Chirchir gazetted the laws final month, because the State strikes to finish the monopoly that the facility distributor has loved for many years.
The laws say that present Kenya Energy prospects won’t be allowed to enter offers with the opposite distributors, in clauses that silently defend the utility agency from buyer defections en masse.
Moreover, the laws haven’t prescribed a transmission interval upon which Kenya Energy prospects will be capable to decamp.
“Topic to part 145(4) of the Act, a licensee may provide a client supplied that the mentioned client has no present contract for provide {of electrical} power with another licensee,” the draft laws learn partly.
“Topic to part 145(4) of the Act, a client shall select his retail provider supplied that the mentioned client shall not have two provide contracts for a similar premises.”
The clauses imply that the over 9.2 million properties and companies will probably be caught with the State-owned energy distributor for years, with official information displaying that prospects are staying at nighttime for about 115.73 hours yearly.
It stays unclear whether or not Mr Chirchir will make modifications to the actual clauses and introduce a transition interval for present Kenya Energy prospects to go for the brand new distributors.
There have been fears that opening up electrical energy distribution to different gamers would result in large defections by disgruntled prospects.
Frequent outages along with pricey payments are fueling a pointy rise within the variety of potential and present prospects choosing different electrical energy sources, primarily photo voltaic and biomass.
Massive companies equivalent to Kenya Breweries, Bamburi Cement, Carbacid Investments, Africa Logistics Properties, and Mombasa Worldwide Airport are a number of the main electrical energy customers who’ve put up different electrical energy sources.
Rich properties are additionally placing up photo voltaic techniques in a bid to finish reliance on Kenya Energy’s provide apart from reducing payments.
Energy transmission
Underneath the laws, Kenya Energy and the Kenya Electrical energy Transmission Firm (Ketraco) will enable different companies to make use of their transmission and distribution networks to transmit electrical energy to customers, upon fee of wheeling expenses.
“A transmission or distribution licensee shall present non-discriminatory open entry to its transmission or distribution system because the case could also be to be used by any licensee or eligible client upon fee of wheeling or use of system expenses,” say the laws.
Wheeling expenses check with the cash paid to a system proprietor (on this case Kenya Energy and Ketraco) by different companies who want to use the system to transmit electrical energy.
Opening up the electrical energy market signifies that energy turbines, that’s KenGen and impartial energy producers (IPPs), may also have the choice of promoting their electrical energy to distributors aside from Kenya Energy.
Constructing an electrical energy transmission community is capital intensive and the open entry idea is ready to ease entry of companies which have for years been eager to enter the facility distribution fray.
The laws come 5 years after Kenya enacted into regulation the Vitality Act, 2019 that opened up the nation’s electrical energy distribution to competitors.
Kenya Energy had 9.2 million prospects as of June final yr, however the interval marked the slowest charge of buyer additions at 318,217.
The State electrical energy distributor has beforehand raised considerations in regards to the rising variety of prospects, particularly the large customers like industries shifting to solar energy techniques.
