<\/em>One Planet Summit in Nairobi, a strategy it sees as good for the environment and its business.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe\nEnergy Act 2019, whose regulations are being drafted, for the first time\nintroduced net-metering in Kenya, a window through which Safaricom wants to\nenter the power market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nnew law also opens up Kenya\u2019s electricity retail market to private companies,\nintroducing competition for State-owned monopoly distributor Kenya Power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under\nnet-metering, widely practised in Europe, households and companies connected to\nthe national power grid and at the same time having their own solar plants will\nbe allowed to supply into the grid excess power generated by their plants.\nSince such customers also receive electricity from the national grid, their\nmonthly net billing becomes the difference between what they got from the grid\nand what they supplied. This means they end up with a significantly lower bill,\nor at times none at all when their supply exceeds consumption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently,\nSafaricom is in the pay-as-you-go (pay per use) solar kits market through its\nNairobi-based partner M-Kopa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More\nrecently, the company which is the most profitable in the region has been\ntrialling wind turbines on two of its sites in Turkana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve\ntrialled two more sites in Turkana; for us it has been an extension of our\ncommitment to reduce reliance on non-renewable energy sources and the two\npilots have been highly successful,\u201d said Sanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As\nof end of last financial year, some 155 network sites belonging to the firm\nwere being powered by solar\/wind hybrid renewable energy solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only\na handful of base stations in remote off-grid areas are exclusively powered by\ndiesel generators, which the telco is replacing with wind and solar stations\nand backup batteries as it looks to lower its carbon footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\naim to continue greening our network,\u201d said Sanda, adding that sites powered by\ngreen plants cost a lot more compared to traditional ones. The telco runs a\nSh32 billion budget for its network development and management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re\nat a level perhaps not where we would ideally like to be but what\u2019s important\nabout the pilot is that it demonstrates some of the tough sustainable proven\ndecisions that the company needs to make,\u201d said Sanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn\nour area of business, green sites cost significantly more than traditional\nsites but the fact that we are willing to do trials, to demonstrate that it\nworks and then use this evidence to further look at how we apportion the Sh32\nbillion or so that we\u2019ve committed towards the network demonstrates our\nlong-term commitment to further greening our network,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aside\nfrom supplying electricity to the central grid through net metering, the new\nEnergy law gives companies like Safaricom a freehand to sell power directly to\nvillages near its base stations through solar powered mini-grids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For\nhomes, net metering ensures stable power supply by creating redundancy with an\nextra power source, meaning a household can have power supply even as the whole\nneighbourhood is cut off from the grid during downtimes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Much\nas it favours homes and businesses, it runs the risk of narrowing the revenue\nstream for Kenya Power which has all along enjoyed monopoly over the power\nretail market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nstrong emergence of solar and wind technologies is now seen to be opening up\npossibilities for individuals to produce, sell and buy electricity among\nthemselves outside or within the national grid. This is seen to give rise to a\nnew crop of energy \u2018prosumers\u2019 (energy producers and consumers at the same\ntime). It means energy assets will no longer be owned exclusively by\ncentralised utilities or the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Due\nto the softening costs of solar and wind power, along with smart distribution\nsystems, almost anyone with a rooftop or some land can produce electricity,\neither for self-consumption or for the grid, creating a diversified energy\necosystem. This transition to renewables carries the potential to reshuffle\npolitical and economic centres of power through decentralisation and\ndemocratisation of energy systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Already\nin Kenya, dozens of manufacturers, shopping malls and gated communities have\nbuilt solar powered stations for own use, driven by the need to cut their power\nbills from the national grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such customers are increasingly cutting reliance on power from the national grid, with their daytime operations being powered by solar plants perched on rooftops of their buildings and carports. National grid supply, done by monopoly distributor Kenya Power, has been limited to mostly nighttime operations in the absence of sunlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read also: <\/strong>How PETCO Is Managing Plastic Waste Menace In Kenya<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Telecommunications company Safaricom is holding talks to start supplying power to the national grid from solar and wind power plants at its base stations. The mobile phone service provider is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[560,1202,1205,1246],"class_list":["post-8267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-responsibility","tag-energy-act-2019","tag-safaricom","tag-sanda-ojiambo","tag-solar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}