Kenya Power will invest up to KES 258 million in the next three years to drive the uptake of electric vehicles in the country.
The country’s sole national power distributor said the investment includes the cost of setting up charging stations at various locations across the country as well as the purchase of electric vehicles and motorbikes to aid company operations.
Kenya Power launched an electric vehicle (EV) charging station located at Stima Plaza on April 22. The station cost the company KES 6.5 million.
The charging station comprises two chargers; a 50 kW DC (1 hour charging time) and a 22 kW AC (2 hour charging time) charger. It is the second EV charging station that is owned by Kenya Power after a similar one that is located at the Ruaraka Depot which hosts the Company’s transport section.
To charge your EV at a Kenya Power station, you will require an RFID card obtained at the Kenya Power security desk at Stima Plaza and Ruaraka.
“The future of transport in electric and as a Company, we are very excited to be leading the conversations around E-mobility. Alongside our need to charge our electric vehicles, we intend to use our EV charging stations to collect data that will inform the next steps of our support to the growing E-mobility industry,” Dr. (Eng.) Joseph Siror, Kenya Power Managing Director & CEO
Locations of New Kenya Power electric vehicle charging stations
In addition to the EV charging station located at Stima Plaza, Kenya Power will install 9 other charging stations by the end of July 2024 at various Company offices across the country including
The locations are:
- Donholm
- Nakuru
- Mombasa
- Mtito Andei
- Kisumu
- Eldoret
- Roysambu
- Electricity House Nairobi
- Ragati
Notably, five of the electric vehicles charging stations will be in Nairobi. The company said it has an annual budget of KES 20 million to set up EV charging stations at all its offices across the country.
“We intend to install 10 additional facilities annually in 2025 and 2026,”(sic!) said Dr. (Eng) Siror.
The move by Kenya Power will possibly address the dearth of EV charging stations in the country, since the few existing ones were spearheaded by startups such as BasiGo and Roam.
This also boosts the efforts for adoption of electric vehicles and motorbikes especially outside the capital city for long distance travellers.
Electric vehicle fleet to boot!
Alongside the EV charging station, Kenya Power also launched two electric heavy-duty vehicles to be deployed for routine operations. The vehicles were purchased for KES 18 million.
The Company intends to scale the number of electric vehicles in its fleet through the purchase of an additional 9 electric vehicles (heavy and light duty) and 25 electric motorcycles by the end of December 2024.
In 2021, Kenya Power completed the pilot of 13 electric motorcycles in its fleet in partnership with UNEP.
Other companies that have already put in motion adoption of electric vehicles include MOGO and some matatu sacco companies.
To boost such efforts, Kenya Power is now implementing the E-mobility tariff that was approved by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority during the recent electricity tariff review as part of its initiatives to drive the uptake of electric vehicles, motorcycles and bicycles.
There will also be an annual emobility conference to bring together players in the industry to deliberate on a framework that will promote the growth of the sector.
