Kenya: New Solar Rules Not Meant to Cushion Kenya Power, Says Energy Regulator

The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) has defended itself over claims that it is out to protect utility firm Kenya Power from the growing threat of solar switch by customers.

The energy regulator last month published new draft laws which will license the sale, installation, repair and maintenance of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems if passed through the Draft Energy (Solar Photovoltaic Systems) Regulations, 2020.

Appearing before the Senate Standing Committee on Energy last week, Epra Director-General Pavel Oimeke said the new regulations are not meant to cushion the struggling state entity but are a move to improve quality standards in the growing solar energy sector in line with revised Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) standards for solar components.

“The reason we have come up with these new regulations is so that we align the solar sector with the new Kebs standards for solar PV systems and components that are used all over the country,” Mr Oimeke told the Senate.

Stumbling blocks

Senators took the Ministry Energy and the sector regulator to task on the necessity of fees to apply for and get a licence to deal with solar PV systems, and the huge insurance policies they are required to take before they are allowed to operate.

In Epra’s draft regulations, solar technicians will also have to part with between Sh2,250 and Sh6,000 to get and renew their licenses, while solar PV systems contractors will pay between Sh3,000 and Sh6,000, and will also be required to take insurance policies of between Sh1 million and Sh10 million.

The Senators said the fees are stumbling blocks to thousands of struggling small businesses to raise, adding that the move will strangle the promising solar industry which currently employs about 100,000 Kenyans.

However, Mr Oimeke said the insurance will help to cover solar installation and repair technicians in case the installed systems malfunction or develop technical problems.

Quality of standards

“It is in the best interests of solar PV systems dealers and technicians to have the indemnity cover so that they are properly insured in the event their installations, which are expensive and costly, go wrong,” Mr Oimeke said.

The draft solar regulations have come at a time the national electricity supplier is facing pressure over rising costs and unreliable power supply even as it faces diminishing returns from power sale as many of its clients, both individual and industrial, switch to solar energy.

Internal documents from Kenya Power in September showed that the company owes its key supplier the Kenya Electricity Generating Company Sh23.7 billion in the period to June 2020, a further Sh19.48 billion owed to Independent Power Producers (IPPs) who supply the national grid with power, and Sh4.67 billion owed to the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco).

Energy PS Joseph Njoroge told the committee that the regulations, which were first introduced in 2012, came following persistent complaints by solar users of underperformance and sometimes total failure of installed solar PV systems.

This led to enactment of the Energy (Solar Photovoltaic Systems) Regulations, 2012 through amendment of the Energy Act, 2006.

The PS said the regulations had improved the quality of standards in the sector for the last eight years.

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