Mini grids seen as solution to increasing electricity access for Kenya’s poor

Money Markets

Many Kenyans still lack access to electricity. Photo/FILE 

 

By Pavel Robert Oimeke

In Summary

• The level of electricity connectivity in Kenya is still quite low at about 18 per cent.
• Low purchasing power of Kenyans in a number of counties makes it impossible for them to get grid connection despite being within a radius of 600 meters of a power transformer.
• As Kenya strives towards an additional 5000+MW of additional power, then need to come up with innovative financing schemes or affordable charges for electricity connections will become more pressing.

A number of interrelated factors are silently and progressively pushing Kenya towards development and utilisation of mini grids.

This dynamic push may catch key policy makers in the energy sector, the national government and the county governments flat footed.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) defines a mini grid as “a set of electricity generators and, possibly, energy storage systems interconnected to a distribution network that supplies the entire electricity demand of a localised group of customers. This power delivery architecture can be contrasted with single customer systems, for instance, solar home systems, where there is no distribution network interconnecting customers, and with centralised grid systems, where electrical energy is transmitted over large distances from large central generators and local generators are generally not capable of meeting local demand.”

The level of electricity connectivity in Kenya is still quite low at about 18 per cent, according to the Kenya Population and Building Census of 2009.

The Constitution of Kenya, 2010 divided the country into 47 counties to facilitate rapid developed, service provision and delivery to all Kenyans.

Statistics from the Kenya census of 2009 shows that Turkana at 2.45 per cent, Tana River (2.5 per cent), Mandera (2.55 per cent) and West Pokot (2.6 per cent) have the least electricity connectivity rates.

Nairobi leads the counties at a connectivity rate of 72.37 per cent while Mombasa and Kiambu come second and third at 59.02 per cent and 53 per cent respectively.

Other counties like Busia, Nyamira, Samburu, Nandi, Vihiga, Elgeyo Marakwet, Marsabit, Kisii, Trans Nzoia, and Baringo have a connectivity of less than 10 per cent, according to the same census of 2009.

The county governments, in close collaboration with the national government, have a daunting task to develop appropriate strategies to minimise energy poverty levels, more especially in counties with electricity connectivity of less than 10 per cent.

The electricity connection charge, that currently stands at Sh34,980 for single phase connection, is one of the factors that is contributing to low connectivity in areas that already have high electricity access.

In Kenya, electricity access is said to be 100 per cent if all residences and commercial establishments are within a radius of 600 meters of a distribution power transformer; even if not connected to the grid.

A number of counties with electricity connectivity above 10 per cent have been noted to have access rates of over 50 per cent, while in some access is at 100 per cent.

The low purchasing power of Kenyans in these counties makes it impossible for them to get grid connection despite being within a radius of 600 meters of a power transformer.

READ: State keeps power connection subsidy at Sh35,000

A number of initiatives, both by the Kenya Power and the government, for instance the electricity connection loan popularly known as “Stima Loan” and “subsidised” connection charges have not borne much fruit in catalysing electricity connectivity in these areas.