Kenya Power has today announced the restoration of their prepaid system.
In a statement, Kenya Power said that they have managed to address the IT hitch affecting the prepaid system that occurred yesterday evening.
Further, the power company noted that vending of tokens would remain slow due to a high number of customer transactions.
“We are also working to restore normalcy at the Contact Centre and operations at banking halls and other customer touchpoints,” KPLC said.
Many Kenyans yesterday stayed without power after Kenya Power’s prepaid vending system experienced a hitch.
Kenyans who tried to buy ‘tokens’ through Kenya Powers pay bill number 888880 were told that the “organisation receiving the payment is unavailable”.
In a statement, Kenya power said that the hitch had also affected their contact centre 97771.
“We are experiencing a technical hitch that is affecting prepaid vending and preventing access to our Contact Centre via 97771. Our technical team is working to restore normalcy as soon as possible. We apologise for the inconvenience caused,” the statement read in part.
President Uhuru Kenyatta gazetted a task force to review power purchase agreements (PPAs) signed between Kenya Power and all electricity generators with a goal of renegotiating the energy prices and other terms downwards.
The team is chaired by boardroom veteran John Ngumi and 15 other members who were drawned from the private and public sectors including retired judge Aaron Ringera, former PricewaterhouseCoopers executive Anne Eriksson and James McFie.
Review of the PPAs came after it emerged that Kenya Power signed contracts committing it to take more electricity than it can sell, leaving it to pay onerous capacity charges to energy producers even when their plants are idle.
“The terms of reference of the taskforce shall be to … undertake a comprehensive review and analysis of the terms of PPAs entered into by the Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited (KPLC),” read part of a gazette notice announcing the formation of the team.
“Review the take-or-pay approach applied under the PPA structure and recommend a viable pay-when-taken (merchant plant) approach, or any other viable payment structure, for use in independent power generation projects.”
Kenya Power welcomed the step taken by Kenyatta of forming the task force.
Kenya Power Board of Directors chairperson Vivienne Yeda said that the board welcomed the move, and expects that it will result in a PPA system that is a win-win for fair power generators, consumers, the Kenyan taxpayer, and the company.
