Sweltering Kenya sets new electricity consumption record

By Phyllis KONRAD

The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has reported increased electricity consumption across all customer segments, registering a new peak demand of 2,316.2 MW in the financial year 2024/2025.

This is a 6.38 percent rise over the previous year’s peak demand of 2,177 MW, reflecting robust economic growth where domestic consumption registered a significant 13.03 percent increase to 3,640.32GWh, while small commercial consumers were up 11.5 percent or 197.72 GWh to stand at 1913.26GWh.

Additionally, street lighting consumption saw a notable increase of 43.89percent, and electric mobility consumption rose by 300percent to 5.04 GWh. This is according to the latest Energy and Petroleum Statistics Report.

Daniel Kiptoo Bargoria, Director General at EPRA, expressed optimism on the increased electricity consumption, saying: “The report reveals a positive trajectory in the subsectors. For example, we saw large-scale energy consumers save about Ksh 1.438 billion from using the Time-of-Use (TOU) tariff, which reached a cumulative 180.3 GWh in consumption.

We also saw growth in E-mobility, where its energy consumption rose by 300 percent to 5.04 GWh. We aim to improve this further by removing the 15,000-unit monthly consumption cap for e-mobility users.”

The report also reveals growth in regional interconnection thanks to the completion of the 210-kilometre 400kV transmission line to Tanzania, enabling strategic interconnections with Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania.

During the year under review, electricity imports from Ethiopia (EEP) amounted to 1,274.42GWh, accounting for 83.09 percent of total imports, Uganda(225.64GWh) or 14.71 percent, while Tanzania accounted for 33.79GWh or 2.2 percent.

The energy sector’s ambition of attaining 100 percent clean energy continued in earnest, with renewable energy accounting for 80.48 percent of total generation. Geothermal energy accounted for 39.51percent of total energy generated, Hydro generation(24.21 percent), Wind(13.18 percent), and solar energy standing at 3.27 percent. As of July 2025, about 10,066,704 cumulative Kenyans were already connected to the grid.

On the LPG front, deliberate interventions by the national government to promote LPG uptake in households, institutional use and for autogas saw LPG consumption rise by 15 percent from 360,594 metric tonnes in 2023 to 414,861 metric tonnes during the period under review.

The subsector is poised for exponential growth as the government deploys LPG reticulation in 5,000 public schools and the rollout of the same programme within mass housing projects.  With 16 retail autogas dispensing stations in operation, EPRA has permitted construction of 18 new stations in the current year.

Similarly, the petroleum sector saw a rise in domestic demand for products rising by 6.94 percent (5,839,464.78 m³) primarily attributed to a decline in local and international prices, which, in turn, stimulated heightened economic activity.

The report also highlights a significant restructuring of Kenya’s petroleum blocks, reconfiguring them into 50 high-potential blocks to attract new investment and exploration.

This conforms to Kenya’s question to start oil production following the successful discovery of commercially viable oil reserves at Ngamia 1 in Turkana County.