Kenya Power Engages Members

Kenya Association of Manufacturers Machakos and Industrial Area chapters had a joint Member’s Forum with Kenya Power to take stock of the ‘Boresha Stima Viwandani’ initiative driven by the power provider.

The Chapter Vice Chairman and members engaged the Kenya Power Nairobi South Region Office led by the Head of Operations and Maintenance, Eng. David Onduru on the issues they face regarding quality and power supply in the region.

Among the concerns cited include billing inconsistence despite reduction in load, power surges and spikes experienced due to fluctuations, quality of power in the first quarter of 2017 has worsened compared to 2016, under voltage, weekly phase failure among others.

The Kenya Power representative highlighted the plans crafted in order to deal with power issues that has been crippling business in the recent months. “A new feeder is to be developed to mitigate snapping of feeders arising from the increased growth in users in Mlolongo. Industrial and domestic customers need to be delinked to ensure constant supply to manufacturers. Plans have also been developed to upgrade the Athiriver substation from 1*23MVA to 2*23MVA to be completed in 3-4 months,” said Mr. Onduru.

The power provider also informed members on an exercise underway to establish causes of dips which sometimes emanate from industries themselves. He encouraged industries to provide technical experts to assess industries imported machines that may phase challenge due to amount of power.