Yesterday the govt said it can not ask KPLC to lower cost of electricity since it only controls forty something percent now my question is how can the govt let such an important sector be dectated by a private enterpriseits

just last week, a company which manufactures bottles for cocacola and other companies threatened to relocate due to energy cost
and in industrial area I am informed companies are relocating to Uganda and other countries where the cost of production is manageable.

The funny thing is KPLC does not generate power and so it has no reason to inflate electricity cost.

KPLC outrageous! Public interest will triumph in the end; it always does after alot of pain. And the government is culpable for perpetuating the monopoly.

Is the company genuinely making profit, or are we just paying for their inefficiencies?

Very true 2012....

They blame oil marketers of making too much money from us, yet most of these oil marketers are barely making 1% NM while the govt is hording over 40bob in taxes and levies from fuel.

The energy ministry needs to adapt an "equity" model and reduce taxes make their cash from volumes rather than from outrageous taxation regimes...

Why then do kplc have blue number plates

@selah: think hard about it; suppose you had the money and were invited by the GoK to be the second power distributor; how would you go about competing with KPLC?

Would you start laying new distribution lines? If so where would you lay them [since KPLC already owns all existing way-leaves]?

Somethings are not as easy as they are made to sound.

The process of libralising power transmission and distribution has already started with the establishment of KETRACO - a transmission company.

Transmission means getting the power from the generating stations to the local substations. distribution means from the substation to the consumer.

At the moment KPLC is doing both. Eventually, KETRACO will take over transmission and KPLC will be left with distribution alone.

that way, other companies can come in and bid for distribution contracts for newly opened frontiers, e.g., the many residential developments coming up in Athi-River and Kitengela areas.

Remember that several years back, KPLC was doing everything from generation to transmission and distribution. Then KenGen was hived off and now we have several competing power generators eventhough KenGen still controls over two thirds of the market.

Which reminds me of the telecoms that you are using as an example: SCOM has over 70% of the market, and it is not the most efficient nor the cheapest!

At the end of the day, the minister for energy was not forthright in saying that GoK cannot compel KPLC to reduce tariffs since it doesn't own the company.

GoK doesn't need to own the company to control the tariffs... tariffs are regulated by ERC - a wholly owned government body!!

The energy barons at Nyayo house should come clean. They regulate the policy and ERC fix the pricing structure. KPLC plays by the rules set.

Why are they not in a hurry to retire the diesel powered emergency plants despite the rains?
We, consumers buy the diesel they burn and this is most expensive cost on the bill far much bigger than the unit cost of power that lands into KPLC Books.

The heat should be turned on the generators, KPLC is just a retailer.