Kenya Power adopts paperless bills

Kenya Power has digitalised it’s billing system for post-paid users. PHOTO | FILE 

By JAMES ANYANZWA

In Summary

• The biggest casualty of the move is the Postal Corporation of Kenya (Posta) which has a Ksh50 million ($480,418) to Ksh60 million ($576,502) bulk postage contract with the power transmitting and distribution company.

Kenya Power has automated its billing system and is phasing out paper bills issued to post-paid customers in order to save about Ksh60 million ($576,502) monthly, to boost efficiency and to enhance its network upgrade.

The biggest casualty of the move is the Postal Corporation of Kenya (Posta) which has a Ksh50 million ($480,418) to Ksh60 million ($576,502) bulk postage contract with the power transmitting and distribution company.

Manufacturers who have been supplying the utility company with Ksh2.2 million’s ($21,138) worth of paper every month, and the providers of paper folding machines whose contract will not be renewed, are other losers.

Some 21 workers previously involved in the manual operations have already been redeployed.

The government-owned Posta said it is looking for ways to cushion itself against the loss of revenue.

“That is something we have been anticipating and we have been working around the clock to come up with alternative solutions,” said Renken Muinde, the innovations and business systems manager at Posta.

“We are working on a project to distribute electronic e-bills through digital mail boxes. We shall re-engage the utility company to come up with new contracts,” he added.

Mr Muinde said Posta is seeking Ksh1.5 billion ($14.41 million) from private investors to digitise its manual operations.

“If the government cannot inject capital into its own institution then we have the option of public private partnerships where we will seek to partner with technology companies to deliver the solution,” he said.

Kenya Power CEO Ben Chumo said the company is migrating 2.2 million post-paid customers to the digital platform from which they will receive power bills through the Internet and text messages on their mobile phones.

Dr Chumo said a facility database has been created to store customer details and to monitor the company’s networks, including transformers, distribution lines and metering systems.

“We will be rolling out our fibre optic system to ensure that our network is able to communicate with anyone. We are taking the Internet to rural areas,” Chumo told The EastAfrican.

The initiative is part of the World Bank-funded Kenya Electricity Modernisation Project, which seeks to increase access to electricity, improve reliability of services and strengthen the company’s financial position.

Among the objectives of the  project is to create metering control centres (MCCs) and boost investment in IT infrastructure.
It also involves incorporation of the state-of-the-art Meter Data Management software and training of staff in the proper use of MCCs.

The project’s total cost is set at $562 million; the World Bank has committed $250 million

It will be completed by June 30, 2020, according to details of the project posted on the World Bank website.

The project also seeks to support the Kenya government’s goal of connecting 70 per cent of households to the national grid by 2018, by providing grant financing for the connection of new households.

Kenya has a total of 4.1 million households connected to the national grid of which 1.9 million are on prepaid metering, and 2.2 million on postpaid.

Chumo said that as at December 2, only 100,000 post-paid customers were still using paper electricity bills, of whom 80,000 were rural customers and 20,000 were urban customers who has not registered for the online billing when they changed houses.