Kenya Power and Lighting Company, commonly referred to as Kenya Power or shortened KPLC, is a public liability company which transmits, distributes and retails electricity to customers throughout

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Location

KPLC headquarters are at Stima Plaza, Kolobot Road in Parklands,

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

. The coordinates of the company headquarters are: 01°16'18.0"S, 36°49'14.0"E (Latitude:-1.271668; Longitude:36.820552).

Overview

Kenya Power is a public company listed in the

Nairobi Securities Exchange The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) was established in 1954 as the Nairobi Stock Exchange, based in Nairobi the capital of Kenya. It was a voluntary association of stockbrokers in the European community registered under the Societies Act in ...

(NSE). The company is a national

electric utility An electric utility is a company in the electric power industry (often a public utility) that engages in electricity generation and distribution of electricity for sale generally in a regulated market. The electrical utility industry is a major pr ...

company, managing

electric meter North American domestic analog electricity meter. Electricity meter with transparent plastic case (Israel) North American domestic electronic electricity meter An electricity meter, electric meter, electrical meter, energy meter, or kilowa ...

ing,

licensing A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit). A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...

, billing, emergency electricity service and

customer relations Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information. CRM systems compile data from a ra ...

. In addition to electricity distribution to industry, offices, schools, hospitals, and domestic users, KPLC also offers optic fiber connectivity to telecommunication companies through its optical fiber cable network that runs along its high voltage power lines across the country mainly to manage the national power grid.

History

Kenya Power traces its origins to 1875 when Seyyied Barghash, the

Sultan of Zanzibar The sultans of Zanzibar ( ar, سلاطين زنجبار) were the rulers of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which was created on 19 October 1856 after the death of Said bin Sultan, who had ruled Oman and Zanzibar as the sultan of Oman since 1804. The ...

, acquired a generator to light his palace and nearby streets. This generator was acquired in 1908 by Harrali Esmailjee Jeevanjee, a Mombasa-based merchant, leading to the formation of the Mombasa Electric Power and Lighting Company whose mandate was to provide electricity to the

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

. In the same year, Engineer Clement Hirtzel was granted the exclusive right to supply Nairobi city with electricity. This led to the formation of the Nairobi Power and Lighting Syndicate. In 1922, the Mombasa Electric Power and Lighting Company and Nairobi Power and Lighting Syndicate merged under a new company known as East African Power and Lighting Company (EAP&L). The EAP&L expanded outside Kenya in 1932 when it acquired a controlling interest in the Tanganyika Electricity Supply Company Limited (now TANESCO) and later obtaining a generating and distribution licenses for Uganda in 1936, thereby entrenching its presence in the East African region. EAP&L exited Uganda in 1948 when the Uganda Electricity Board (UEB) was established to take over distribution of electricity in the country. On 1 February 1954, Kenya Power Company (KPC) was formed and commissioned to construct the transmission line between

and

Tororo Tororo is a town in the Eastern Region of Uganda. It is the main municipal, administrative, and commercial center of Tororo District. History Tororo was garrisoned by the Uganda Army's Air and Sea Battalion during the Uganda–Tanzania War ( ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

This was to transmit power generated at the

Owen Falls Dam Nalubaale Power Station, formerly known as Owen Falls Dam, is a hydroelectric power station across the White Nile near its source at Lake Victoria in Uganda. ''Nalubaale'' is the Luganda name for Lake Victoria. Location The dam sits across t ...

to Kenya. KPC was managed by EAP&L under a management contract. In the same year, EAP&L listed its shares on the

. Making it one of the first companies to list on the bourse. EAP&L exited Tanzania in 1964 by selling its stake in TANESCO to the

Government of Tanzania The politics of Tanzania takes place in a framework of a unitary presidential democratic republic, whereby the President of Tanzania is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the ...

. Due to its presence in only Kenya, EAP&L was renamed the Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited (KPLC) in 1983. Kenya Power Company de-merged from KPLC in 1997 and rebranded to

Kenya Electricity Generating Company Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC abbreviated to KenGen, is a government enterprise in the Republic of Kenya charged with the production of electricity for the country. KenGen is the largest electric power producer in Kenya, generating ...

(KenGen) and in 2008, the electricity transmission infrastructure function was carved out of KPLC and transferred to the newly formed

Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited, commonly referred to as KETRACO, is a wholly-owned parastatal of the Government of Kenya which serves as the primary Transmission System Operator in the Republic of Kenya. Location The headquart ...

(KETRACO). Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) was re-branded Kenya Power in June 2011.

Shareholding

The 20 largest shareholders in the

stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especially AmE'' one of the shares into which ownership of a company ...

of KPLC, as of 31 August 2015, are illustrated in the table below: Note:Totals are slightly off due to rounding.

Subsidiary

In 2015, KPLC elevated its wholly owned school, ''Kenya Power Training School'' to the Institute of Energy Studies and Research (IESR), to "provide training solutions for the power sector in the areas of generation, transmission, distribution and inter-connectivity". The primary target population are the countries of the

Northern Corridor Northern Corridor is a busy and an important transport route to the East and Central Africa countries of Burundi, Eastern DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan and Uganda. The main Northern Corridor transport network is connected to the Port of ...

Controversy

The company has been faced with a lot of controversy regarding making of losses, despite having a major source of profit through sale of electricity to the public, as well as charging exceptionally high electricity bills that caused public uproar. As of April 2021, the company had a commercial debt of KSh. 65.5 billion (approx. US$555 million).

Power purchase from Ethiopia

In 2022, Kenya Power Limited signed a 25-year

power purchase agreement A power purchase agreement (PPA), or electricity power agreement, is a contract between two parties, one which generates electricity (the seller) and one which is looking to purchase electricity (the buyer). The PPA defines all of the commercial te ...

, whereby

Ethiopian Electric Power Ethiopian Electric Power () is an Ethiopian electrical power industry and state-owned electric producer. It is engaged in development, investment, construction, operation, and management of power plants, power generation and power transmissi ...

will sell and Kenya Power will buy electricity at specified agreed rates. For the first three years, 200 MW will be exchanged, with the quantity increasing to 400 MW in the remaining 22 years of the contract. The power will be transmitted along the

Sodo–Moyale–Suswa High Voltage Power Line Sodo–Moyale–Suswa High Voltage Power Line (or Ethiopia–Kenya HVDC Interconnector) is a 500 kV bipolar high-voltage direct current electricity power transmission line, under construction, connecting the Wolayta converter station () near So ...

. The contract begins on 1 November 2022.

References

External links

Website of Kenya Power and Lighting Company Limited

Website of Institute of Energy Studies & Research

Kenya Power Contacts
{{coord, 01, 16, 18, S, 36, 49, 14, E, display=title Electric power companies of Kenya Companies based in Nairobi Energy companies established in 1922 1922 establishments in Kenya Companies listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange