Policymakers urged to introduce a net electricity metering solution

Policymakers should consider the implementation of a net electricity metering solution to enable households who generate power using renewable sources such as solar to sell the excess power to the national grid.

Amiran Communications Power Solutions Manager, Peter Ngida believes this would reduce public cash incurred on the generation and help utilize excess renewable energy from households.

A net electricity metering system works in such a way that households and businesses who generate electricity using solar systems are allowed to pump the excess power to the national grid, which acts as a storage for power generated.

The households are billed whenever they use electricity from the national grid and the meter spins back reversing the reading whenever the solar system generates to the grid.

However, the system is not used in Kenya since electricity generators are licensed by the government and should meet thresholds.

Several Kenyans have embraced renewable sources such as solar systems that generate excess power that could be pumped to the national grid if the net metering system is adopted.

Kenya Power piloted this system a couple of years ago with the SoS Children’s Village in Mombasa.

It is estimated that there are more than 300,000 potential net metering customers in Kenya.

This emerged as Amiran Communications marked its 25^th Anniversary and shared projections for the future focusing on smart cities and gig economy.