Kenya Power has today announced that they have rolled out a smart metering project that will benefit 55,000 small and medium enterprise customers across the country.
This is a Kshs 1.25 billion World Bank funded project that is part of the Kenya Electricity Modernization project and it is slated to be completed by 30th June this year.
The Kenya Electricity Modernization Project was approved by the World Bank in 2015 to support the government’s last mile goal of scaling up electricity access as well as providing better quality electricity services. The World Bank said they will contribute $457.5 million to the project which includes a credit of $350 million from the International Development Association, an IDA guarantee of $200 million and a grant of $7.5 million from the Strategic Climate Fund Scaling up Renewable Energy Program.
“These combined benefits of error-free data, prompt network problem identification, and audit of energy consumption will go a long way in enhancing service delivery to our customers in the SME sector,” Kenya Power’s Managing Director Bernard Ngugi said during the launch. “We believe that the advanced metering technology will further enhance customer satisfaction based on the visibility and prompt detection of power usage and also reduce technical losses which are key to ensuring reliable and quality supply of power,
Kenya Power says that the smart meters are part of an “Advanced Metering infrastructure that facilitates two way communication between the company and customer.” This means that in case of any outage, the smart meters are able to communicate directly with the company’s national contact center which will facilitate immediate resolution.
This is seen as improving efficiency as Kenya Power teams are alerted promptly and additionally, the smart meter sends a notification to the customer via SMS.
