03 March 2014, Nairobi – Electricity consumers have been handed a reprieve in their February power bills following a reduction in the foreign exchange rate component charge.
Kenya Power has gazetted a 13 cents per unit (kilowatt hour) for February bills, which is 61.8 per cent lower than the 34 cents per unit charged on January meter readings. This is also lower than December’s 15 cents per unit.
The utility firm has retained the fuel cost adjustment charge at Sh5.19 per kWh over the last three months.
A levy charged by the Water Resources Management Authority for energy purchased from hydropower plants with capacities of 1MW (megawatt) or above has also been slashed to five cents from the previous two month’s six cents. About 12 hydropower plants of this category supplied electricity to Kenya Power in February.
“Slight decreases in forex adjustment and the WARMA levy charges caused a decrease in the cost of electricity,” the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics said in a statement on Firday.
Forex rate fluctuation adjustment reflects foreign currency-based costs such as electricity project loans repayments incurred during generation and distribution. It is dependent on the shilling’s strength against major world currencies in a given period and is adjusted monthly. The Central Bank quoted the shilling at a mean of 86.32 against the dollar on Friday.
An electricity bill has other components surcharged monthly A typical monthly bill’s components include the fixed and consumption charge -payable to Kenya Power – and forex adjustment and VAT which are remitted to the government.
Kenya Power also collects the fuel cost adjustment on behalf of KenGen and independent and emergency power producers for units supplied in the period, ERC levy for the Energy Regulatory Commission and the rural electrification programme levy for the Rural Electrification Authority.
The new schedule of tariffs, effected from last month, requires domestic users to pay a fixed charge of Sh120 and energy charges of Sh2.50 per unit for up to 50 units consumed, Sh11.62 per unit for 51-1,500 units and Sh19.57 per unit for units above 1,500.
– The Star