From early 2018 Kenyans may get cheaper solar power from independent solar producers.
This will be following an auctioning policy that would cut the cost at which the utility firm, Kenya Power, buys electricity from photovoltaic (PV) firms by half.
This was announced by Dr Ken Tarus, Kenya Power’s Managing Director and CEO on 24 October.
Dr Tarus informed that the cost at which the company buys power from solar firms in Kenya will fall from Sh12 (US$0.12) per kilowatt-hour to only Sh6 ($0.06) per kilowatt-hour, halving.
Since 2015, the country’s energy sector players have been working on policy that will enable the government to purchase power from independent producers through auction.
This will replace Kenya’s current Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) policy that allows producers to price the power.
“At the moment we are still under the feed-in tariffs and under this policy we have the unsolicited bids. Therefore any investor will come in with what they perceive as their right price,” commented Dr Tarus at a Tuesday investors briefing.
“The latest we’ve seen is about $0.0875 and $0.085 and we are optimistic that once we get to the soliciting of bids that should come down due to competition. Indications are that this (the auction) could come in either at the end of this year or early next year.”
Source: African Business Review