Kenya power to end use of postpaid meters in rural areas

NAIROBI, Kenya, January 2 – Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) is set to end the  use of postpaid meters in rural areas in the next three years.

The utility firm avers that the move is anchored on scalling down rampant power theft  as well as meter reading expenses.

It has employed thousands of meter readers who visit homes to take the readings monthly.

Moving foward,KPLC will cease connecting its rural clients with postpaid meters even as it gradually makes a move to face them out across the country.

“Further, existing postpaid meters in the rural areas will be retrofitted to prepaid meters over the next three years,” it said in its annual report.

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The utility firm has been undergoing major streamlining including the scrapping of its old messaging module early last year in what it hoped would enhance service delivery.

It has about 2.1 million customers on postpaid billing while 6.8 million are on prepaid billing. It says it seeks to onboard the 2.1 million users to its prepaid billing.

The utility firm  earned Ksh120.18 billion or 63 percent of its revenues from postpaid customers and a paltry 37 percent from prepaid customers.

This translated to a net loss of Ksh3.19 billion in the year ended June 2023.

It is banking on  reforms on its metering system as part of measures to raise revenue collection but also seal revenue leakages.

The changes comes against the backdrop of snowballing  electricity defaults primarily from postpaid customers who are grappling with increasing prices.