Kenya: Electricity demand peaks in last two months

With the pace of economic activities in Kenya, electricity consumption has recorded a sharp rise in the last two months following months of subdued demand, according to a report by The Standard.

The demand has peaked over the last few weeks to that to the early months of curfew in the country, as said by Rebecca Miano the Chief executive of Kenya Electricity Generation Company (KeGen), in a virtual briefing earlier on Tuesday.

Reportedly, the consumption demand for electricity dropped to around 1,760 megawatts (MW) in May when compared to the average demand of 1,882MW in 2019. "Demand had dropped following the restrictions put in place after the country reported the first case of Covid-19, forcing industries to operate fewer hours owing to factors such as the dusk to dawn curfew while producing less due to depressed demand", Miano said.

Adding to it, she stated that the rise has reached 1,944MW (recorded in the last few weeks) which was recorded at 1,804MW in February. She said, "the impact on demand was more pronounced between April and June. The situation has normalized and demand is growing steadily. Demand has gone higher than even the pre-covid-19 February figures."

Speaking at the brief Miano also talked about the possibility of establishing a power generating plant in Dandora which will use garbage to produce electricity in collaboration with Nairobi Metropolitan Services.