Kenya Power hit by transformers shortage

Kenya Power is grappling with a biting shortage of power distribution transformers that is threatening stable power supply to thousands of electricity users amid procurement woes at the firm.

So severe is the shortage that the utility firm is unable to replace faulty transformers with new ones and is forced to take them for repairs for lengthy periods of time before they are reinstalled to restore normal electricity supply.

This could increase the already high amount of power interruptions that customers currently face, disrupting both household and business activities.

Official data from Kenya Power shows the Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI) – that is the average duration each customer was off power supply in a month – stands at 4.03 hours.

But what will worry grid-connected power consumers is that the company has embarked on a rapid expansion of its distribution network to connect more homes, businesses and institutions such as schools to the grids and in return stretching the capacity of the existing transformers leading to frequent power outages in parts of the country.

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The problem is especially severe in rural areas, where large swathes of power users are served with tiny transformers that are frequently tripped by overloading cutting off power supply. 

This as the addition of 716,206 new customers to the grid by Kenya Power in the year to June last year to increase the number of its customers to 8.27 million – a figure expected to have risen further – has not been matched by a corresponding increase in key power infrastructure such as transformers.

“We have not had power for almost a week and this has always been because of a faulty transformer,” said Elizabeth Kariuki, a resident of Mirema Springs.

When the area was hit by a power outage on Thursday morning last week, the residents were told by the company that the faulty transformer serving the area had been taken for repairs. By Sunday afternoon, Kenya Power had yet to restore the transformer.

To underline the shortage of transformers, Kenya Power is seeking to buy 2,144 new transformers – which is a quarter of the entire 8,778 distribution transformers it has installed across the country – to address the crisis.

The company in March announced a multi-billion tender for supply of the transformers but the bid was temporarily suspended by the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (PPRB) following an appeal filed by five local companies.

The companies had argued that the tender requirements were skewed, unfair, and meant to shut out local manufacturers from the multibillion-shilling deal in favour of foreign firms.

The tenders demanded firms with 10 years manufacturing experience, but local firms say they are in breach because they were set up in 2015.

However, last month, PPRA gave Kenya Power the go-ahead to proceed with the procurement of the transformers and ordered extension of the closing date of the tender by 14 days.

The company has been relying on ageing transmission infrastructure including old cables and aged transformers that have become prone to malfunctions leading to power outages.

The inefficiencies are also hitting the sales of the financially struggling company’s bottom line, leaving it ever reliant on state funding.

Kenya Power is one of the state-owned entities earmarked to benefit to a tune of an undisclosed amount from a Sh86.95 billion State loan tapped from the International Development Agency (IDA) and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) in efforts to support the reforms at the company.

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