ERC directs Kenya Power to deny connections under new solar rules

A worker inspects a power line. The Government seeks to promote the use of renewable energy and reduce over-reliance on the national power grid. Photo/FILE  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By NEVILLE OTUKI

In Summary

• New building owners required to install solar
• The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has directed the country’s power distributor not to approve new electricity connections to buildings that have not complied with solar-water heating regulations

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has directed the country’s power distributor not to approve new electricity connections to buildings that have not complied with solar-water heating regulations.

The ERC directive is in line with energy-saving rules that were gazetted last year requiring certain commercial and residential buildings tapping power from the national grid to install solar water heaters.

The directive is aimed at promoting use of renewable energy and reducing over-reliance on the national power grid. ERC says Kenya Power should implement the law by following the provision that requires only compliant property units to be connected to the national electricity grid.

“Kenya Power is required legally to deny connection of electricity until buildings install solar water heater systems,” Pavel Oimeke, the ERC Director, Renewable Energy, said on Friday in an interview on the sidelines of an energy management workshop in Nairobi. “They need to be enforcing the directive without fail.”

The Energy (Solar Water Heating) Regulations 2012 require builders of residential and commercial houses that use specified units of electricity or have certain occupancy to include solar water heating systems in their designs as part of national energy conservation measures.

“An electric power distributor or supplier shall not provide electricity supply to premises where a solar water heating system has not been installed in accordance with the regulations,” states the gazette notice dated April 4 2012.

The energy regulator notes that a number of new residential buildings, especially in Nairobi, are yet to meet the solar water requirements but have had electricity installed.

Kenya Power had not yet responded to our queries on the matter by the time of going to press. Though several property developers have installed solar water heaters, especially those in gated communities, quite a number are yet to do so partly because of high costs associated with the kits.

The cost of a complete solar water heater system for domestic use ranges between Sh125,000 and Sh150, 000 per unit, while that for commercial buildings is between Sh600,000 and Sh2 million depending on water handling capacity, according to quotations by Powerpoint EA Ltd, a dealer of solar kits.

These prohibitive upfront costs have slowed down uptake of solar heaters among property developers even though, according to ERC, they could save households up to 20 per cent of electricity consumption costs.

Under the solar energy guidelines, existing residential and commercial units whose hot water needs exceed 100 litres per day should have solar heaters fitted by 2017.