NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 27 – Kenya Power has posted a Sh3.50 billion net profit for the full year ended June 30, a 134 per cent growth from Sh1.49 billion posted last year.
The growth was mainly driven by a 6.9 per cent growth in sales and an improvement of 1.5 per cent in system efficiency to 77.57 per cent. It was also enhanced by a 4.6 per cent reduction in operating costs.
The increased earnings were also attributable to reduced tax costs with the firm’s tax expense for the year under review reducing from Sh6.71 billion to Sh1.62 billion.
During the year under review, the corporate tax rate for the firm reverted to 30 per cent from 25 per cent in 2021, hence the significant movement in the comparative tax expense.
Sales grew by 6.9 per cent to 9,163 Gigawatt hours(GWh) partly due to the addition of 453,916 customers, mainly in the SME and large power segments moving the total number of customers to 8.9 million.
Sales growth was also driven by increased usage amongst existing customers.
Operating expenses reduced by 4.6 per cent from Kshs.39.8 billion to Sh38billion driven by effective cost management implemented during the year.
Even so, basic revenue registered a slight decline from Sh125.9 billion to Sh125.6 billion.
“Our focus for this financial year set on building on the momentum built during the previous financial years when the turn-around strategy was rolled out. Despite some curve balls, all our core business lines have registered remarkable improvement,” said Geoffrey Muli, the Acting Managing Director, Kenya Power.
During the year under review, the Company’s net liability position improved by Sh10.7 billion to Sh55.74 billion mainly as a consequence of a reduction in overdue debt, and the clearance of a Sh3.6 billion overdraft.
Power purchase costs rose by 22.3 per cent. Non-fuel costs went up by 4.75 per cent from Sh76.037 billion to Sh79.65 billion resulting from increased energy uptake from new generation plants during the period.
Fuel costs increased from Sh11.18 billion to Sh26.49 billion because of increased dispatch of thermal energy plants from 876 GWh to 1,539 GWh.
This is attributable to low hydrology, the unavailability of key geothermal plants, the interruption of the Loyangalani – Suswa transmission power line, and an increase in fuel prices globally.
