Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) has announced that electricity consumption has hit a new record high with a demand of 2,316 MW recorded on Wednesday, February 12, 2025.
The company stated on Monday that statistics from Kenya Power’s National Control Centre show that peak electricity demand has been steadily growing over the last 3 years with the growth rate gaining momentum in 2024.
Towards the end of 2021, the lighting company added, electricity demand exceeded the 2,000 MW threshold and peaked above 2,100 MW in 2022 and maintained a demand of 2,200 MW in 2023 before regaining momentum in June 2024.
“Looking at the trend, it took nearly two years for the peak demand to grow by 200 MW. However, since June last year, peak demand has grown by over 116 MW. This means that in the last 8 months alone peak demand has grown by an average of 14.5 MW per month. Last year we had 7 new peaks, as of December the Peak was 2,288 MW by January the peak was 2,304 MW,” said Kenya Power Managing Director Joseph Siror.
Kenya Power attributed the demand growth to investment in the stabilization of the National Grid and the construction of key projects.
Among the projects is the completion of the Kimuka 220/66kV substation by KETRACO, from which four 66kV feeder lines to serve Nairobi and adjacent counties were built.
Another project is the 33kV double circuit interconnector between Narok and Bomet and network reinforcement projects have also enhanced power supply redundancy to ensure sustained sales.
“In the last six months, we also connected over 198,535 new customers to the national grid. With improved grid stability and deployment of various connectivity projects, we expect a steady growth in electricity demand in the short and medium term,” Eng. Siror added.
Kenya Power now says it plans to implement the donor-funded Last Mile Phases IV and V which are projected to connect a total of 289,121 new customers to the national grid.
The company is also actively championing the uptake of e-cooking and electric motorization to grow electricity demand and contribute positively to environmental conservation.
“Towards this, in April last year, the Company announced an investment of up to Ksh.258 million covering three years to drive the uptake of electric vehicles and motorbikes in the country. The investment includes the cost of setting up charging stations at various locations across the country and the purchase of electric vehicles and motorbikes to aid Company operations,” Siror added.
Kenya Power has been making gains to enhance efficiency and increase revenue as peak demand increases.
The demand peaks however pose a risk against an indicative firm capacity of 2,344 gigawatt hours.
