Embattled Kenya Power has been dealt with a blow after the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) has been made responsible for the country’s electricity network.
In a gazette notice, the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) announced the changes on Saturday designating Ketraco to be in charge of the selection of power plants feeding the grid at any one time.
“Pursuant to section 138 (1) of the Energy Act, 2019, Epra designates Ketraco as the system operator. The system operator will be responsible for matching consumer’s requirements/demand with the electrical energy availability or supply, maintaining electric power system security and arranging for the dispatch process,” said the power sector regulator.
The company has also been designated as the system operator, which is part of reforms the government is undertaking in the power sector.
Other than ensuring that the grid is operating smoothly, Ketraco will also be in charge of matching electricity demand with supply.
The process entails selecting power plants that feed the grid based on multiple factors, including giving priority to producers offering the cheapest electricity.
The move to designate Ketraco as the system operator is in line with recommendations of the task force on the Presidential Task Force on Review of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), which gave its report to President Uhuru Kenya last September.
It recommended that the work be undertaken by an independent player away from Kenya Power and the power producers.
The task force noted that having Kenya Power play the role was in conflict with the law, which says that a power distributor or a generator should not perform the role of a system operator.
In its report, the task force also recommended that Ketraco take over the operations and maintenance of many of the transmission lines currently under the purview of Kenya Power.
“The law provides that the system operator shall not be involved in the direct or indirect buying or selling of electrical energy. This implies that Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) as a distribution company cannot be designated as an SO,” said the task force in the report.
“The use of a system operator is also expected to enhance accountability in the merit order dispatch process. The task force was informed that power dispatch is done by KPLC’s National Control Center (NCC) through the merit order mechanism where the cheapest power is prioritised for dispatch. This could, however, not be verified.”
Kenya Power has increasingly come under pressure in recent months over the opacity process that has seen expensive private-owned producers prioritized over cheaper electricity.
Recently, there was two days intermittent power outages which the utility firm attributed to vandalism by scrap metal dealers which had weakened the heavy structures.
According to the utility company the vandals came from the nearby Mukuru kwa Njenga slums from where the incrementally cut away at the towers usually at night and late sold the steel pieces to scrap metal dealers.