Breakdown: Kenya Power Token Prices Increase

Kenyans are currently being forced to pay more for their electricity after Kenya Power silently increased its token prices.

Viral Tea discovered that the changes took effect last week in the monopoly firm's latest review of electricity costs, as depicted in the difference in tokens purchased on Wednesday, September 27 and Sunday, October 8.

On September 27, Kenyans purchased tokens worth Ksh100 and got 4.69 worth of tokens. On October 8, the same amount got Kenyans 4.36 worth of tokens.

Regarding the token purchase breakdown, the change in the value of tokens was depicted by the increase in the Fuel Energy Charge from Ksh19.49 to Ksh21.55.

From Top Left: Details of a Ksh100 token purchased on September 27, 2023, and details of a similar token purchased on October 8, 2023. /VIRALTEAKE

This was a result of the increase in fuel prices by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) on September 14 where Super Petrol, Diesel and Kerosene currently retail at Ksh211.64, Ksh200.99 and Ksh202.61 respectively.

The price of Super Petrol, Diesel and Kerosene increased by Ksh16.96 per litre, Ksh21.32 per litre and Ksh33.13 per litre respectively from the prices of Ksh194.68, Ksh179.67, and Ksh169.48 respectively from the previous monthly review.

"Fuel Energy Charge is the added cost or rebates to the consumers due to fluctuations in world prices and in the quantity of oil consumed by electricity generation.

"The fuel cost charge lags one month behind the actual price of the fuel. Kenya Power collects this money and all of it is passed on directly to electricity generation companies, who in turn pay fuel suppliers," explains Kenya Power on its website.

However, there was a slight change regarding the EPRA charge which was reduced from Ksh0.37 to Ksh0.34.

REP Charge also dropped from Ksh2.86 to Ksh2.67, REP Charge referring to one which goes towards the last mile connectivity in rural areas.

"This is a 5 per cent levy on the cost of the units of power consumed by a customer. It is passed on to the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) for implementation of the rural electrification projects," explains the power firm.

Nonetheless, the increase in token prices was also blamed on the Kenyan shilling losing its grip against the dollar, with the exchange rate currently at Ksh148 per dollar, from Ksh145 per dollar as has been the case in the past few weeks.

On March 24, 2023, EPRA approved higher power tariffs by Kenya Power which saw electricity prices go up by 63 per cent, one which aims to raise more money to fund the upgrade of its ageing distribution systems.

In the first review, EPRA raised base power prices to Ksh12.22 per unit from Ksh10 for those consuming below 30 units, an increase of 22.2 per cent.

Those consuming between 30 and 100 units were not spared as the cost increased from Ksh10 to Ksh16.3, a 63 per cent jump.