The Kenya Power has announced to be working towards cutting system losses as part of the authority’s turnaround strategy.
System losses take two forms: technical losses, which are inherent in the distribution process. They account for about 12.1%. The other is commercial losses which are the result of pilferage, mostly at the end-user point. This accounts for 11.85% of the total.
In the last financial year, the company targeted a three per cent reduction from 23.65%. However, by the close of the year the losses recorded stood at 23.95%. A slight reduction of 0.41 was realised in commercial losses but was negated by increased technical losses due to the relocation of the electricity infrastructure along Nairobi Expressway, which is under construction.
Vandalism
The vandalism that affected an underground sub-transmission line in Nairobi resulted in load redistribution and occasional load shedding. The poor loss reduction was aggravated by the non-completion and commissioning of the Suswa-Lessos-Kisumu line, which was expected to reduce technical losses by at least 0.98%. The absence was the continued load management activities within Western Kenya region.
The slight improvement in the commercial loss was a result of focused effort by management supported by data analytics and technology through a war room strategy that saw staff across the company involved in the exercise.
These results were mainly achieved in the second half of the year, building on a momentum that if maintained in the current year, will result in a targeted reduction. With the improved focused strategy and the now repaired vandalised network and the commissioned Suswa-Lessos-Kisumu line, this should be achieved.
In the last seven years, Kenya Power’s customer base has grown by over 300% from 2.3 million to 8.3 million account holders today. This exponential growth comes with its own operational challenges, amongst them, an increase in non-vends and zero vends.
