Reduced electricity consumption is expected to hit the bottomline of Kenya Power since it relies heavily on industrial consumers. [Phillip Orwa, Standard]
Kenya’s electricity demand has dropped sharply in the wake of an economic lull as the country continues to fight the spread of Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA), the country recorded the lowest demand in electricity consumption since the 2017 General Election cycle, highlighting the effects of the economic freeze experienced across the country.
EPRA Director-General Pavel Oimeke told a continental think tank, African Sustainability Matters, that the country’s peak demand rose nine per cent over the last two years to stand at 1,926 megawatts (MW) in February 2020.
“Our most recent peak demand is 1926.47 MW attained on February 19, 2020,” said Oimeke. “We are seeing some drop in demand although we are still monitoring.”
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Following the first reported case of Covid-19 in Kenya last month, the government has introduced stringent measures, including restriction of movement in and out of Nairobi and parts of the Coast region as well as a 10-hour daily mandatory curfew to stop the spread.
This has disrupted economic activity across most industries, with many companies in both the public and private sectors advising employees to work from home.
This, coupled with the dusk-to-dawn curfew, has meant most employees don’t work at night, thus impacting on electricity consumption across the country.
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Data from technology giant Google indicates that customer traffic to restaurants, cafes, shopping centres, libraries and movie theatres in Kenya dropped by 45 per cent between March 8 and 29, 2020.
According to the report, traffic to bus and train stations similarly went down by 39 per cent over the same period of time, with open-air markets, food warehouses, drug stores and pharmacies recording a 33 per cent drop.
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Residential estates marked the only rise in traffic, recording 17 per cent more movement between the same period. Places of work also recorded a 22 per cent drop over a similar time.
The drop in electricity consumption is also expected to hit the bottom line of the country’s State electricity distributor Kenya Power, particularly as the firm relies heavily on corporate and industrial power consumers for earnings.
The government anticipates up to Sh172 billion in lost revenue from the subdued economic activities.
Treasury is also set to present a supplementary budget in Parliament later this week to provide an economic stimulus to cushion hard-hit Kenyans.
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