Monica Juma, Cabinet Secretary of Energy, has invited Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to negotiate on sustainable energy innovations in the country. CS Juma has urged IPPs to formally express their interest to the Ministry in the coming few days.
The CS was speaking during the Kenya Power stakeholders meeting, stating that the IPPs need to formally write to the energy ministry expressing their interest through the Principal Secretary. Their requests will be followed by a notification of scheduled sessions with a select team led by Energy CAS Zachariah Ayeko.
“I would like to formally invite all IPPs to come forward to the negotiating table so that we can engage towards a win-win solution that secures a sustainable energy sector in the Republic of Kenya. I am alive to the fact that our undertaking in this task may seem daunting but our teams have taken time to elaborate the execution path,” explained Dr. Juma.
The new call by the Ministry of Energy is in line with the government’s aim to reduce power costs in the country by December 25th.
The government last month froze all pending and ongoing contracts with independent power producers as the utility firm reviews the existing agreements to lower the cost of electricity in the country.
This is after it emerged that that IPPs accounted for 47% of power procurement costs in FY2020, but only 25% of power volumes, while KenGen accounted for 48% of costs and 72% of volumes.
In the meantime, the CS confirmed that Kenya Power reforms are in place, as the implementation of the task force report continues. She welcomed several recommendations forwarded by the task force to improve operational efficiency as well as forge synergy with other players in the sector.