Kenya’s energy regulator has scrapped the monthly usage cap that limited how much power electric vehicle (EV) charging stations could draw under the special e-mobility electricity tariff.
The change comes from the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA), published in a Gazette Notice on September 18, 2026, and amends the tariff schedule EPRA first set out in 2023.
Under the old rules, e-mobility customers were treated much like small commercial power users, paying standard rates up to 15,000 kilowatt-hours a month, then facing a penalty of up to KES 5 extra per unit once they crossed that line.
Now that ceiling is gone entirely for the e-mobility category.
The tariff itself stays the same: KES 16 per kilowatt-hour during normal hours, dropping to KES 8, half price, between 10 PM and 6 AM.
What’s changed is that charging stations, battery swap points and fleet depots can now use as much power as their business demands without being bumped into a more expensive pricing bracket.
That distinction mattered a lot in practice. Some operators had been deliberately capping how many vehicles they served at a single station just to stay under the 15,000 kWh threshold and keep the cheaper rate.
Companies like BasiGo, the electric bus maker, and Spiro said a good chunk of their charging stations were already hitting the old limit.
BasiGo alone runs 17 stations, most of which were exceeding it, while more than 20 of Spiro’s 500 battery-swapping stations were in the same boat.
Industry figures are calling this a genuine turning point. Moses Nderitu, vice president of the Electric Mobility Association of Kenya and managing director of BasiGo Kenya, said the extra headroom means operators can now expand charging infrastructure to serve motorbikes, vans and private EVs, not just their own vehicle brands.
EPRA folded several other adjustments into the same notice. Small commercial, e-mobility and industrial customers in categories CI1 through CI7 will now have their consumption threshold calculated from the average of their first three months of billing rather than a fixed number.
Businesses in those categories that operate at full capacity around the clock can also qualify for a 5% discount on off-peak rates, once Kenya Power verifies their output.
The regulator also formally defined net metering and power dumping for the first time. Customers generating their own renewable power and feeding surplus back into the grid will be credited for half of what they export, with the rest billed at standard rates.
Any power pushed into the grid without prior written approval now counts as dumping and gets billed at the full base tariff, even if the customer has a net metering agreement in place.
The changes apply retroactively from July 1, 2025, and were signed off by Acting Director-General Dr. Joseph Oketch.
For a government trying to cut its fuel import bill and reduce dependence on Gulf oil, removing a rule that penalized growing EV businesses is a fairly direct way to keep the momentum going.
