The exercise starts with large power customers who are about 5,000 and contribute 60 percent of the company’s energy sales/XINHUA FILE
Speaking during launch of the exercise at Industrial Area, Nairobi, the company’s Installation, Inspection and Fraud Control Deputy Manager for Commercial Services, Thagichu Kiiru says the inspection will target about 2 million customer installations in domestic, industrial and commercial customer segments.
Kiiru revealed that the company loses about five percent of revenue every year attributed to theft of electricity and hopes to reduce the loss by one percent this year.
He says besides contributing to loss of revenue for Kenya Power, compromised metering equipment through tampering and bypassing has often led to incorrect bills for customers, and may lead to electrical accidents.
He also revealed that the company also suffers about 18.6 percent on technical/system losses per year which is being addressed by building bigger substations and re-conductoring of the existing lines.
“Our aim as a utility company is to supply safe, quality and reliable electricity to our customers all the time. It is therefore, within the legal and professional ambit of duty and responsibilities of Kenya Power as a company to carry out regular inspections to ascertain adherence to proper wiring and operational and safety practices at the customers’ premises,” he added.
The exercise starts with large power customers who are about 5,000 and contribute 60 percent of the company’s energy sales.
Over 50 percent of the large power customers are based in the vast Nairobi regions, with the Industrial Area and the Central Business District having the highest concentration.
“The exercise is destined to continue throughout the country after today’s launch targeting the company’s over two million installations. We will therefore send our inspectors to customers premises and we urge all to fulfil their contractual and statutory responsibility by allowing them to carry out their work,” he said.
The exercise will then go to domestic customers in the coming months.
The company’s security reports indicate that illegal connections have been the major cause of electrocutions and slum fires which have been on the increase in the recent past.
