EPRA (Electricity and Petroleum Regulatory Authority) is toying with the idea of limiting the number of times a customer is hit by a power outage to 20 per annum.
- Available figures show that an average customer experienced 44.9 unplanned outages in the year ended June 31st 2023.
- The proposed Epra service code further restricts the cumulative duration of unplanned power outages – System Average Interruption Duration Indicator (SAIDI) – to 80 hours per year.
- Customers are currently on a blackout for about 115.73 hours annually.
Further, to ensure that unplanned blackouts last as briefly as possible, EPRA wants Kenya Power to improve from the current average duration of four hours and 52 minutes for each blackout. The proposals in the code restrict the duration of each blackout – Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) – to a maximum of four hours.
EPRA says Kenya Power must now shift to the new targets within one year of the distribution code being adopted. After five years, the targets will be further improved to a maximum of 15 unplanned blackouts each year, 45 hours of unplanned outages annually, and a maximum duration of just three hours per outage.
These rules, however, do not affect planned outages that normally occur after the power utility firm issues notices.
Meanwhile, there is intense lobbying by firms to have Kenya Power compensate them for financial losses, equipment damage, physical injuries and death due to unplanned power outages. Kenya Power offers compensation for injuries and damaged kits but does not compensate domestic and business customers for financial loss resulting from blackouts.
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