Kenya Power & Lightening Company has said 1.25 Million new clients have been connected to the National grid in the year ended 30th June 2016 raising the country’s electricity access to a historic record of 60%. The fastest connection rate regionally.
According to Kenya Power, the rate of access to electricity in the previous year stood at 47% with over 800,000 customers connected to the grid. The Government of Kenya has a target 0f 70% by 2017 with an aim of connecting 1.5 Million customers in 2016 through the last mile project which is funded by the African Development Bank(First Phase) to a tune of Ksh 13.5 Billion and The World Bank(Second Phase) at Ksh 15 Billion.
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Currently, Kenya’s installed capacity is at 2,341 MW as at June 2016 compared to 1,765 MW of June 2013, an increase of 33%. Over this period, geothermal generation has been the main source of this new energy.
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According to Kenya Power CEO in his opinion article in the Sunday Nation “Additional 2.6 million households have been connected to electricity raising our customer base from 2,261,064 in March 2013 to 4,890,373 in June 2016, representing a growth of 116 per cent. This has raised the country’s electricity access rate from 27 per cent three years ago to 60 per cent by the end of June this year. Last year alone, we connected a total of 1.25 million Kenyans to the grid, up from 843,000 the previous year. With confidence and support from the government and international lenders in the ongoing Last Mile Connectivity Project, we aim to achieve 70 per cent connectivity by the end of next year and universal access by 2020.”
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