Electricity consumption declined as companies focus on power alternatives due to the high cost of power - KPL

KPLC Engineers maintain a substation. PHOTO | FILE

Power demand in Kenya continues to decline due to high prices allocated by the Power monopoly company Kenya power. 

The power connection across the country has declined as Businesses and households turn to Solar Energy. 

Consumption of electricity has been declining since 2014 to 2.4 percent in 2018 despite a GDP growth of 6.3 percent, data by according to data from Kenya Power.

 The data shows the company sold 7,905 units of Gigawatts hours (Gwh) in 2018. Households take up to 7 million connections to the national grid. While companies drop by 5 percent of the 2014 total connections.

However, high electricity bills have been blamed for discouraging some of this consumer including malls that are turning to solar power projects. Some of the businesses that had a power connection have closed down. 

The low demand has also seen the government cut the target for expanding electricity output by 2030.

The government has stopped all new power generation projects due to the declination. The main focus for the energy ministry is the supply of the existing generated power.

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