[kictanet] kenya-power-to-pay-for-blackouts-lasting-more-than-3-hours

[Wangari Kabiru]

www.the-star.co.ke/news/2016/04/30/kenya-power-to-pay-for-blackouts-lasting-more-than-3-hours_c1342132

Read on!

Blessed day.

Regards/Wangari

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Apr. 30, 2016, 5:00 am By LOLA OKULO

Power went off in parliament late on Thursday as MPs debated a bill to compel Kenya Power to compensate customers in case of prolonged blackouts.
The Energy Bill 2015, proposed by Mvita MP Abdulswamad Shariff will make Kenya Power pay customers for any losses due to blackouts exceeding three hours, in case it fails to issue a 24-hour notice prior to such an outage.
The bill was passed by parliament and will now go to the Senate then forwarded to the president for assent, if senators also pass it.
The proposed law will push Kenya Power to compensate a consumer where due to power outages, poor quality, irregularity of electricity supply or negligence; the consumer incurs financial loss or suffers physical injuries.
Shariff said the bill was meant to check conduct of the company given that it is a monopoly.
"The whole idea is not to punish anyone, but honestly they need to pull up their socks," Shariff told the Star on Friday.
"Every time there is a blackout there are financial losses. There are people running butcheries, salons and other businesses. What we are saying is that there is a financial aspect to it (power outages)."
The compensation, according to the bill, shall be paid in form of a subsidy incorporated in the customer's bill. It shall be equal to the amount of loss incurred as presented by the consumer and verified by Kenya Power.
The power utility firm will only be spared paying a compensation, in case a blackout is due to 'an act of God', like in the case where heavy downpour causes a power line to fall.
On Thursday evening, other than parliament, most areas in Nairobi had a blackout following heavy rains that flooded most roads in the city.
"Heavy rainstorms have this evening caused power interruption in most parts of Nairobi. The heavy rains that started late in the afternoon have interrupted electricity supply and distribution systems in parts of the city," said Kenya Power in a statement issued on Thursday night.
Last July, Kenya Power said it would need at least five years to build adequate redundancies at our major load centres in cities such as Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu, which will end outages.
A redundancy system allows the company to transfer customers to a subsidiary network and keep electricity on, when there is a failure within the main network.
The company is also undertaking a major infrastructure upgrade to reduce outages.
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