Kenya’s power utility company, Kenya Power, has announced a plan to invest up to KShs.258 million in the next three years to drive the uptake of electric vehicles in the East African nation.
This investment will include the cost of setting up charging stations at various locations across the country and the purchase of electric vehicles and motorbikes to aid company operations.
In a statement issued on Monday, April 22, 2024, the company revealed that it had launched an electric vehicle (EV) charging station located at Stima Plaza at a cost of KShs.6.5 million as part of the planned investments in e-mobility.
“The charging station comprises two chargers; a 50kW DC (one hour charging time) and a 22kW AC (two hours 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,’’ the statement explained.
In addition to the EV charging station located at Stima Plaza, Kenya Power will install nine other charging stations by the end of July 2024 at the company’s various offices across the country including; Donholm, Nakuru, Mombasa, Mtito Andei, Kisumu, Eldoret, Roysambu, Electricity House Nairobi and Ragati.
Commenting on the initiative, the Managing Director and CEO of Kenya Power, Eng Joseph Siror said, “The future of transport is electricity 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.
“We have set aside an annual budget of KShs20 million to set up EV charging stations at all our offices across the country. Beyond the additional charging stations that we intend to put up in the current financial year, we intend to install 10 additional facilities annually in 2025 and 2026,” Dr Siror further said.
Alongside the EV charging station, Kenya Power has also launched two electric heavy-duty vehicles that would be deployed for routine operations.
The vehicles were purchased for KShs18 million.
The company intends to scale the number of electric vehicles in its fleet through the purchase of additional non-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, an exercise that offered invaluable lessons on E-mobility.
Before this exercise, the company piloted the use of electric-powered forklifts and pallet stackers at its warehouses for two years between the year 2016 and 2018.
The company 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.
To further accelerate the uptake of E-mobility, the company has championed the annual E-mobility Conference that brings together players in the industry to deliberate on a framework that would promote the growth of the sector.
Source: https:// energynewsafrica.com
