With the perennial challenges of power blackouts being exhibited in the country under the watch of Kenya Power and Company Limited (KPLC), East African Breweries is now seeking approval to generate its own power.
It is seeking regulatory approval from the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) in a bid to mitigate power blackouts at the firm.
East Africa Maltings Limited has also sought regulatory approval to self-generate power also keen to address a similar issue.
“The purpose of the electric power generation is for own use as a backup during power outages from the national electricity provider to ensure continuity of operations,” the pair of firms said in a statement of Monday.
Kenya Breweries Limited (KBL), EABL’s subsidiary will meanwhile set up two plants at its plants in Ruaraka and Kisumu whose power generation capacity stands at 9.3 and 2.4MW.
On the other hand, Malting’s Nairobi Industrial plant along Kampala Road will host its power generating unit if approved and will produce 2.2 Megawatts in estimation.
In KPLC’s latest annual report, it laments that the shift to power consumption in the country was pushing it into more dilemma at the back of its increased power generation.
The ballooning shift to solar power by major industries in the country that makes up 54.8 percent of its already thinning revenue is pushing KPLC into a dilemma.
“The company operated in a challenging environment over the financial year under review, where demand growth at 3.7 percent remained below the projected level of five percent. The dampened demand growth is further compounded with the increased threats of grid defection by the industrial category as decentralized renewable energy options are becoming more available and cheaper,” Kenya Power revealed in its latest annual report.
The company raised Ksh63 billion from the industrial customers who utilised 4,462-Gigawatt in the year to June 2019, representing 45 percent of its revenue.
This posed a threat to the government agency, EPRA, which in return moved in to revise the Energy (Solar Photovoltaic Systems) Regulations, 2012 and developed the Draft Energy (Solar Photovoltaic Systems) Regulations, 2020 together with the associated Regulatory Impact Statement.
