Epra invites comments on households sale of power to national grid

The government has invited comments on regulations that will allow Kenyans to sell excess energy they produce to the national grid.

The regulations will allow anyone with a Retail Supply Licence to supply power to Kenya Power at an agreed tariff.

Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) said the main objective of the regulations is to provide a framework for supplier or consumers to bank excess energy on the grid hence promote the uptake of renewable energy in Kenya through net metering.

Generation capacity The maximum aggregate generation capacity of Netmetering Systems shall be one hundred megawatts (100MW) for Phase One of the Netmetering Programme.

“The Authority shall review the maximum aggregate generation capacity limit when the 100 MW cap is attained but not later than three years after the regulations are gazetted,” the regulator said in a gazette notice.

It is expected that the new regulations could boost the installation of solar power projects across the country as investors move to take advantage of the opportunity. The net-metering agreement will be valid for an initial period of 10 years and the term shall be renewable upon expiry with the mutual consent of the supplier and EPRA.

Cost of entry will be high as the supplier shall bear all costs related to and setting up the interconnection with the national grid. For each unit exported during a billing period, the supplier who is also a consumer shall receive a credit of 60 per cent of the exported unit. Then the government will compute the number of exported units, apply the discount, credit the supplier’s bill with the appropriate number of units (kWh), and bill the supplier cum consumer for the remaining energy supplied by the licensee in accordance with the applicable standard retail tariff schedule rates.

“If after the application of unit discount, the supplier remains with excess power during the billing period, he shall not be billed for any energy supplied by the Licensee and shall carry forward any surplus credits to the next billing period,” EPRA said.

This means that homeowners will not get monetary payments for the excess power but it will only be an incentive to install solar panels. However large-scale producers will be paid at a tariff to be discussed later.