Nipate
Forum => Kenya Discussion => Topic started by: RV Pundit on May 11, 2015, 01:27:00 PM
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When you thought this should have been cleared since the demise of Telkom Kenya...but better late that never. They've improved from 12% connection rate few yrs ago to now 38%. They can move to 80% like telcom sector if they keep innovating.
If they drop the connection fee like today..they will turn profitable. They are not profitable now because there are few connections here and there...and major hurdle for many people remain 40-100k connection fee.
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Kenya-Power-drops-upfront-payment-of-connection-fees/-/539550/2712356/-/ko33hez/-/index.html
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Who owns this company Pundit? When was it privatized?
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Kenya-Power-puts-Mama-Ngina-on-top-shareholders-list/-/539550/1857144/-/a58fcl/-/index.html
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I think majority owned by NSSF (25%?), followed by GOk(25%) but private individual owns 50% of it; Trancentury use to own 5%; Mama Ngina maybe own 1% or about. It was long privatized together with Kengen but gov still retain control.
Who owns this company Pundit? When was it privatized?
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Kenya-Power-puts-Mama-Ngina-on-top-shareholders-list/-/539550/1857144/-/a58fcl/-/index.html
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Who owns this company Pundit? When was it privatized?
http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Kenya-Power-puts-Mama-Ngina-on-top-shareholders-list/-/539550/1857144/-/a58fcl/-/index.html
With our exorbitant electricity costs, which make Kenya practically noncompetitive worldwide, this is farcical.
Kenya Power records Sh12 billion gross profit (http://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016/10/31/kenya-power-records-sh12-billion-gross-profit_c1447326)
Kenya Power has recorded a Sh12 billion profit before tax for the year ended June 30.
CEO Ben Chumo attributed this to a sustained favourable business environment and sales that grew 3.6 per cent from 7.130 billion to 7.385 billion units.
Chumo said the profit led to an 11.9 per cent increase in sales revenue, from Sh77.8 billion the previous year to Sh88 billion.
"It will see a full and final dividend of Sh0.30 per ordinary share paid for the year instead of the interim dividend of Sh0.20 paid at half year," he said.
The power purchasing cost, excluding fuel costs and foreign exchange, increased by Sh6.9 billion to Sh51.4 billion.
This, Chumo said, was due to an increase in energy charges resulting from growth in unit purchases.
But he noted fuel costs decreased by Sh13 billion to Sh12.7 due to increased reliance on geothermal and hydro sources.
"The countrywide network upgrade has resulted in an 18.3 per cent increment in transmission and distribution expenditure to Sh28.7 billion," he added.
Kenya Power's half-year net profit dropped by 16.4 per cent in February despite increased revenue.
This was due to higher power purchase costs from additional capacity and growth in distribution costs.
The utility firm announced that profit after tax for the period ended December 2015 dropped to Sh3.76 billion from Sh4.5 billion, also as a result of higher repair and maintenance costs.
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This is what serious manufacturers in kenya are resulting to ,generating their own power http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Devki-Group-switches-on-15MW-Kajiado-coal-power-generator/539550-3453498-i8cuam/index.html to avoid KPLC. Also another innovate company that has opted to generate its own electricity is kapa oil. This is the way to go, something the likes of everready could have done if they shifted their production close to menengai nakuru if cost of electricity was the determinant factor to their closure.
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This is nigeria like disaster. I wonder why Kengen and private power producers cannot enact mega-coal plants in Mombasa? Manufacturing companies should not have to bear the burden of running their own power station or burning lots of trees (like tea companies) have done in my place - leaving the area deforested.Time for re-think of our power sector...we need cheap (like really cheap) coal plants along the coast & eastern - if we are to compete in industrial sector.
This is what serious manufacturers in kenya are resulting to ,generating their own power http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Devki-Group-switches-on-15MW-Kajiado-coal-power-generator/539550-3453498-i8cuam/index.html to avoid KPLC. Also another innovate company that has opted to generate its own electricity is kapa oil. This is the way to go, something the likes of everready could have done if they shifted their production close to menengai nakuru if cost of electricity was the determinant factor to their closure.
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This is nigeria like disaster. I wonder why Kengen and private power producers cannot enact mega-coal plants in Mombasa? Manufacturing companies should not have to bear the burden of running their own power station or burning lots of trees (like tea companies) have done in my place - leaving the area deforested.Time for re-think of our power sector...we need cheap (like really cheap) coal plants along the coast & eastern - if we are to compete in industrial sector.
This is what serious manufacturers in kenya are resulting to ,generating their own power http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Devki-Group-switches-on-15MW-Kajiado-coal-power-generator/539550-3453498-i8cuam/index.html to avoid KPLC. Also another innovate company that has opted to generate its own electricity is kapa oil. This is the way to go, something the likes of everready could have done if they shifted their production close to menengai nakuru if cost of electricity was the determinant factor to their closure.
I agree all this is precipitated by ineptness of KPLC. The focus should be cheap power and not the geothermal or the wind power being peddled around. The solution might be gas fired power generators that can compete with coal. TZ has plenty of natural gas that can be piped to kenya to generate power. Our coal in kitui will take forever to be exploited due to demands of locals and our mineral rights legislation that says that government owns everything beyond 6ft. If land owners were the ones giving exploration and mineral extraction claims alot could be happening.
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Reducing electricity costs becoming a daunting task (http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Opinion-and-Analysis/Reducing-electricity-costs-becoming-a-daunting-task/539548-3461092-afg8d1/index.html)
Last week, four news items related to power supply appeared in the media. The Cabinet Secretary for Energy commissioned a committee to review power purchase agreements (PPAs) mainly signed with thermal generators.
The objective is to seek opportunities to deliver lower electricity costs. Then we heard the Cabinet Secretary for Industrialisation stating that industrial development in Kenya is conditional on low energy cost inputs.
In the same week the industrialist Narendra Raval of Devki Group announced a 15-MW coal power plant at Athi River to hedge against high electricity costs for his steel and cement industries. Finally, local and international environmental pressure groups were expressing environmental concerns over the 1,000 MW coal plant at Lamu.
I attended the launch of the 5,000 MW power generation plan just over three years ago. The main thrust of the plan was to deliver sufficient power generation capacity to power an ambitious national economic development plan.
The other two objectives were to deliver the least cost generation mix while focusing on low carbon green solutions. Geothermal generation was intended to be the critical pivot for delivering on the three objectives.
The challenge, as I see it, is that for whatever reasons we are not delivering geothermal generation fast enough to dilute the impact of high cost thermal generation which uses imported oil.
Geothermal is a local natural resource with a low carbon footprint. Wind generation is the other significant natural resource with even greener credentials.
Tanzania is nearly on target in harnessing locally produced natural gas for base load generation, and has significantly scaled down use of imported fuel oil.
Uganda has committed huge projects to deliver maximum hydro generation from the Nile waters. For Kenya, the equivalent local natural resource driver for base load generation was meant to be geothermal.
Mathematically, the percentage share of thermal generation is a function of total generation which in turn is dependent on total demand.
If the total demand is not growing fast enough and thermal generation is fixed, then the impacts of thermal shall remain dominant. And if geothermal (or any other cheaper alternative) is not growing fast enough, it will take longer to dilute high thermal generation costs.
The committee appointed last week will need to interrogate how Tanzania has within a short time managed to bring down thermal generation to nearly zero.
But above all, the committee will need to answer the very sensitive question of why, in spite of massive decrease in imported fuel oil prices, the power bills in Kenya have not significantly come down. What in the power supply chain is gobbling up the benefits from low oil prices?
The challenge for the committee is how to seek areas of flexibilities and common interests within PPAs that can translate into cost savings for consumers.
Specifically I have in mind the restrictive capacity protection “take or pay’ PPA clauses. The clauses specify that the buying firm either takes the power from the supplier or pays the latter a penalty when it declines to take it.
However, the reviews have to recognise the binding sanctity of agreements and potential negative impacts of “forced” revisions on future foreign direct investments.
Let us now look at the demand side. When the “5000 MW new generation target by 2017” was mooted, energy economists correctly argued that this level of demand is not existent within the stipulated timelines.
I recall arguing at the time that having an ambitious target is better than having none, and that if half of the target is achieved it will be a major accomplishment because electricity demands usually grow on the back of a buffer supply.
Yes the ongoing last kilometer power distribution project is perhaps the biggest socio-economic story ever scripted in Kenya this century.
However this “retail” demand is not likely to substantially increase the total demand. It is the “bulk” consumers who are domiciled in industries, institutions and other energy intensive projects that shall define a quick path to a 5000 MW demand.
In the last three years, we have closed down the Mombasa refinery, previously a major power consumer. Contrary to expert opinion, the SGR opted to use imported diesel instead of locally produced electricity.
We also lost the opportunity to pump Uganda crude oil. A number of industries have also recently closed down. Energy efficiency initiatives are also gradually reducing energy demand.
And many entities are making their own power. All these will decelerated the pace towards the 5000 MW generation target.
In respect of the proposed 1000 MW Lamu coal generation, my concerns are more economic than environmental. With an inevitable scaling down of the 5000 MW generation plan due to weak demand, supplies from Lamu plant (which is fueled with imported coal) could potentially crowd out the natural resource supplies from geothermal and wind.
Over-capacity is likely to result in the unintended consequence of “take or pay” penalties.
All said and done, it is a serious concern that the electricity supply (generation and distribution) is not delivering lower costs to the economy.
I suggest that the outcomes from the ministerial committee review should inform revisions to the national power generation plan.
The ultimate objective is to sustainably establish a power supply cost that maintains business competitiveness especially in the manufacturing and processing sectors.
Mr Wachira is director of Petroleum Focus Consultants. Email: wachira@petroleumfocus.com
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Kenya should focus on universal electricity coverage with stable 24-7 power after which she can start thinking of growing demand by reducing the price- so deal with supply side issues first - and on this we are not doing badly with 5M household connected to the grid - and adding 1m plus annually - meaning by 2020/2022 - we may have universal electricity access - which would be an incredible feat achieved in single generation.
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Kenya should focus on universal electricity coverage with stable 24-7 power after which she can start thinking of growing demand by reducing the price- so deal with supply side issues first - and on this we are not doing badly with 5M household connected to the grid - and adding 1m plus annually - meaning by 2020/2022 - we may have universal electricity access - which would be an incredible feat achieved in single generation.
You have it upside down.. I think we have debated this issue and come the conclusion the issue is production of power at highest price possible.. the consensus is that Kenya should go big on Coal or Nuclear..
Look at Telecommunications .. You see when Kenya brought in Undersea cable the lower price enabled supply to be available and demand to increase.. Now we have by products like Digital TV, digital media, all these were because of this investment and policy change.. and letting markets sort out the supply and demand.
We need to break KPL to three companies .. regionalize them and give this job to private sector completely.. Kengen too needs to be wholly privatized all debts scraped... I wonder why the prince gave up on his plan to reform these government owned entities.. is he too jittery to focus or what? He had that Somali I forgot his name do some work to advise him on how to privatize these mongrels of businesses..
Uhuru should stop being a hyena and focus on one thing.. if it is Roads let him do that if it is healthcare do that but not this juggling of millions mega things
We need to move to full capitalism throttle..
Ruto and Uhuru Connection circus is a game of musical chairs.. without Donor subsidies these 7 million connections won't be economically viable.. But if Kengen produced power at $0.02/watt then you would see market forces fixing the supply problem.. A mama mboga could bake mandazi with an electric stove and still be able to sell mandazi at a profit and even a lower price..Middle Class in Mombasa would start using cooling systems ...Farmers would be able to mechanize ..etc...chicken and egg
The boozos should be talking to one Fombe Mangufuli to allow them to use Natural gas reserves he has to generate electricity.. but instead they are all over the villages going hut from hut lighting one bulb at a time..and then taking National geographic photos what for?
GOK should set Policy and leave market to do the rest..I have never seen Obama installing any windows to save energy, or him show casing digital meters but by using tax incentives he made it happen...
What we have in Kenya right now is a never ending PR circus at the expense of policy and long term solutions.