Kenya Power has turned its focus on increasing electricity sales to industrial consumers as it strives to remain profitable.
Speaking
in Kisumu on Friday where the company hosted representatives from the
Kenya Association of Manufacturers, Kenya Power boss Ben Chumo said
dedicated lines will be set up to serve the class of customers in order
to cushion them in the event of blackouts.
This
is in addition to a Sh13 billion programme that the company is
currently undertaking that will see it upgrade existing substations and
distribution lines countrywide, and setting up of new infrastructure in
some areas.
FASTCONNECTION
The exercise began in Nairobi’s Industrial area in April and will take two years to cover the entire country.
“We intend to set up dedicated lines for large customers so that in case of outages they can be served through the direct lines.
“This will not only be of benefit to the customers, but the company as well,” said Mr Chumo.
He
said that connectivity time will be reduced to 30 days from the current
average of 163 by the end of this year, as a move to enhance ease of
doing business.
“Marketers within the
company will take responsibility to speed up customer applications so
as to reduce the connectivity time,” he said.
About
60 per cent of Kenya Power’s revenue from electricity sales comes from
industrial consumers who are estimated at 5,000 out of the company’s
more than 1.2 million customers.
The
firm’s profit after tax dropped by 5.74 per cent to Sh4.35 billion in
the year to June 2013 from Sh4.61 billion that was posted during the
previous period on account of increasing interest costs on debt taken to
finance network expansion.
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