Kenya’s imports of electricity have grown by 65.74 percent from 143.40 gigawatts (GWh) per hour in the second half of 2022 to 419.13 gigawatt-hours (GWh) during a similar period last year.
This is per the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority’s (EPRA’s) Energy and Petroleum Statistics Report for the 2023–2024 financial year.
The report attributed the increase in imports to the country’s acquisition of full commercial operations of the power purchase agreement signed between Kenya Power and Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP).
”In the period under review, Kenya imported 419.131 GWh of electricity accounting for 6.16 % of the country’s energy mix. Figure 4.1 shows the monthly energy imports for the period under review,” EPRA report noted.
“The increase in December 2023 is attributed to the attainment of full commercial operation of the power purchase agreement between Kenya Power and EEP on 1st December 2023,” it added.
In January of this year, data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) revealed that Kenya had more than doubled its power imports from neighboring countries amid increased demand.
KNBS said the country imported 706.9 million kWh of electricity from Ethiopia and Uganda in the first 11 months of 2023, up from 288.27 million kWh in a similar period in 2022.
The bulk of the power imports, 546.5 million kWh, were sourced from Ethiopia during the period, according to KNBS, with the country emerging as Kenya’s biggest supplier of electricity in the region.
Power imports from Ethiopia are expected to rise by 200 MW over the next three years, increasing the import capacity from the country to 400 MW, according to EPRA.
Kenya’s installed power generation stands at about 3,078 MW, while the total effective interconnected capacity is about 2,925 MW.
The system peak demand averages 2,057 MW, while the average available capacity is 2,035 MW, necessitating imports, according to EPRA.