KPLC to spend Sh800 million to address power outages

er Company will spend Sh800 million to maintain its electricity network countrywide to improve quality of its services and reduce power outages.

The company’s CEO, Bernard Ngugi, said in Karatina in Nyeri county on Friday that Sh 400 million has already been invested to ensure all transformers are maintained.

 “We envisage to spend about Sh 800 million in two years,” he said.

The company is carrying out a comprehensive audit of its electricity network countrywide by identifying issues requiring corrective action.

This includes repair works on the network including transformer maintenance so as to clear the backlog of faulty transformer replacements.

The delay in replacement of faulty transformers was as a result of Covid-19 outbreak.

The exercise will see planned and unplanned outages reduce drastically thus reducing complaints of power outages from customers.

Unplanned outages are being addressed through checking the lines and undertaking maintenance as well as clearing the vegetation around the networks.

Vegetation, he said, has grown in many of the regions covering the lines.

“The branches hold the circuits, cause power blackouts and sometimes even damaging equipment in homes,” he said.

The company has partnered with the government-led Kazi Mtaani Youth Employment Programme to carry out the maintenance of wayleaves.

The youth are engaged in pruning and cutting down of trees and vegetation along the electricity network.

Ngugi also said the company will intensify the use of Live–Line technology for planned maintenance programmes.

The Live–Line technology enables Kenya Power technical teams to carry out the network maintenance without switching off power supply.

 “We are committed to ensuring that our customers enjoy quality service by minimising disruptions during planned maintenance programmes and responding speedily to restore normalcy during unplanned outage situations,” said Ngugi.

“Since we scaled-up adoption of the technology in 2018, planned interruptions, have reduced by 40 percent. We have managed to avoid a total of 2,154 shutdowns over the period with positive impact to the company and the economy at large,” he added.

The company has also structured its way of operation where engineers who earlier operated at the regional level have now been moved to counties.

This will ensure effective management operations and enhanced responsiveness to customers.

“That has helped us a lot because in the last six or so months, the noise from customers has gone down,” he said.

Mt Kenya regional manager Phineas Marete said the programme dubbed low voltage and sub and substation maintenance or Okoa Transformer also running on well in the region.

It involves looking at the entire electrical system which supplies the customer from the source to the meter and maintaining it with the aim of making the system seamless.

He said in Mt. Kenya alone, the company is targeting close to 1600 transformers within the nine counties in the region.

Kazi Mtaani program, he said, has reduced conflicts of the company cutting down locals’ trees as they will be alerting the company employees whenever there is vegetation problem.

“Previously we used to have a lot of conflicts with farmers who complained after their trees were cut. But now with the engagement of the locals to support the Oka Transformers, we are even moving faster,” he said.

The program is expected to be cleared in four months.