Households drove Kenya Power’s record high electricity sales in the year to June 2026, accounting for half of the additional 1,374Gigawatt-hours (GWh) the utility sold amid increased connections and widening use of power.
Electricity sales to homes grew 19 percent to 4,327GWh from 3,641GWh a year ago -fastest growth of Kenya Power’s four consumer categories- as the utility’s total unit sales grew 12 percent to 12,777GWh in the period from 11,403GWh.
The growth highlights the impact of increased connections to homes, besides signaling that more households are widening use of the power on home appliances, hence driving consumption per metered connection.
The growth in consumption by households was double that registered by commercial and industrial (the single biggest consumption class of electricity) and six times the growth that small commercial users posted in the period.
Consumption by commercial and industrial customers increased by 299GWh or five percent to 5,920GWh in the year to June 2026 from 5,621GWh a year ago, while that from small commercial consumers grew by 106GWh (6 percent) to 2,024GWh in the same period.
Kenya Power added 411,710 customers in the year, bringing the total base to 10.4 million.
Most of the additions are homes under the subsidised Last Mile Connectivity. But a reducing base tariff negated the significant rise in unit sales of electricity, hurting the utility’s quest to raise more money to undertake critical projects, notably a revamp of the aging grid.
‘One of the major reasons why our electricity revenue did not grow by a bigger margin was the reducing tariff. The tariff has been reduced by Sh0.70 per unit on average year on year over the tariff control period,’ Joseph Siror, the Managing Director of Kenya Power, said.
Under the current tariffs that came into effect in April 2023, the cost of a kilowatt-hour (kWh) has been dropping year on year, negating the significant rise in unit sales of electricity.
The surge in power consumption from households helped drive Kenya Power’s electricity revenues to Sh238.24 billion in the year ended June 2026 compared to Sh219.28 billion a year ago, as net profit marginally grew to Sh24.99 billion from Sh24.4 billion in the same period.
The slowed growth in consumption from small commercial, industrial and commercial consumers comes at a time when most of them are setting up alternative power sources to complement supply from the national grid.
Major electricity users in Kenya like Bamburi Cement, carbon dioxide manufacturer Carbacid Investments, Africa Logistics Properties, Mombasa International Airport and International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology have recently set up solar power plants.
Others like Coca-Cola were recently cleared to set up solar power plants, which is further expected to affect electricity demand among the big consumers.
The firms have cited the need to reduce their electricity bill and also ensure a reliable supply of power as the major reasons behind setting up the solar plants.
Reliability of the national grid has for years been hampered by blackouts, mainly due to overloaded transmission lines and vandalism of key towers.
Commercial and industrial consumers are the single biggest user of the national grid and accounted for 46.3 percent of the total units that Kenya Power sold in the year to June 2026. Households are the second biggest consumption category, accounting for 34 percent of the units the utility sold, followed by small commercial customers at 16 percent.
Kenya Power’s quest for additional money to revamp the national grid, among other major projects took a hit mid this year after the State froze a proposed tariff review.
Higher consumer tariffs could have allowed Kenya Power and other utilities in the energy sector to raise more cash from electricity sales, affording them the roof to fund critical projects.