Local firms to reap from power project

A Kenya Power employee at work in Nyeri town on March 4, 2015. FILE PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI |

What you need to know:

  • Last Mile project implementation.
  • Companies making materials used in electricity supply to earn from Buy Kenya initiative.

Local firms will be the biggest beneficiaries as Kenya Power implements a project meant to accelerate cheap power connections to rural households.

In a notice published on Tuesday, the electricity distributor called on local companies producing materials used in electricity transmission such as poles, cables, conductors and transformers, among others, to participate in tenders that the firm is set to announce for the Last Mile Connectivity Project.

“Kenya Power wishes to encourage local manufacturers and contractors to participate in the tenders that will be advertised in the coming months. The 'Buy Kenya Build Kenya' initiative means supplying locally made materials and not those manufactured from overseas,” Kenya Power managing director Ben Chumo said in the notice.

The project was adopted last year after the Cabinet rejected Kenya Power’s bid to raise the cost of initial electricity connection from Sh35,000 to Sh75,000 for a single-phase meter that is mostly used to light up homes.

At the time, the government approved a Sh2.7 billion grant to the utility firm meant to subsidise the cost of electricity connection and plug the financing gap that the utility was facing which had prompted it to raise the connection fees.

The Last Mile Connectivity Project, which was to be officially launched last month, is to be implemented at a cost of $800 million, sourced from bilateral lenders such as the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank among others.

EXTEND LOW-VOLTAGE LINES

It will involve extending low-voltage lines to households within a specified vicinity from the location of transformers in order to cushion power users from high connection fees.

It is projected that the project will allow Kenya Power to lay the primary electricity distribution infrastructure such as power lines and transformers as close as possible to the targeted homes.