The Energy Regulatory Commission will now be referred to as the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) after a successful rebranding process. The government agency acquired the new name at the end of March after a new energy bill came into effect.
President Uhuru Kenyatta signed into law the Petroleum Bill 2017 and the Energy Bill 2017 in March 2019. The new law seeks to create three important national agencies to handle energy matters; the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority, the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation, and the Nuclear Power and Energy Agency. The state agencies will take over the energy sector supervisory role from ERC which was established in 2006 as a replacement for the Electricity Regulatory Board.
According to a press statement issued by the Presidential Communications team, the newly created Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority is expected to ‘regulate the production, importation, exportation, transmission, distribution, supply, and usage of electrical energy’. The organization will also supervise the importation, refining, exportation, transportation, storage, and sale of petroleum and petroleum products.
EPRA is currently undergoing a transition in order to align itself to the new mandate outlined in the law.
