Kenya Power has issued a statement on the power outage experienced in several Nairobi estates.
The utility company, on Friday, May 14, clarified that its Nairobi West Sub-Station was flooded following heavy rains witnessed in the county.
"The flooding was occasioned by the heavy rains which led to the Nairobi Dam breaking its bank.
"As a result, our customers in Nairobi West, South C, parts of Mbagathi Way, Dam Estate, Civil Servants, Five Star Estate, parts of Lower Hill and environs are off supply," the firm explained.
It further assured affected customers that restoration work is currently in progress and its teams are working round the clock to restore supply as soon as possible.
"We regret the inconvenience caused and thank our customers for their patience," the utility company added.
In an earlier statement, the electricity distributor explained why frequent power outages were experienced during the rainy season.
Kenya Power explained that because rains were mostly accompanied by strong winds, they sometimes snap tree branches or uproot whole trees causing them to fall on power lines which ends up disrupting the power supply.
In other instances, wet tree branches touching power lines create a ‘pathway’ for electric charge to flow between the power conductors to the ground leading to a short circuit which in turn causes an outage.
In new proposed regulations, the company will see itself pay its consumers for financial losses that occur during power outages.
EPRA, on May 1, unveiled a draft copy of the Draft Energy Regulations (Electricity Reliability, Quality of Supply and Service) which may compel Kenya Power to compensate businesses.
At the same time, Kenya Power restored a cable project that had been vandalised. The 220kV cable provides alternative power supply feeder lines to the Nairobi Central Business District (CBD), Industrial Area, and other adjacent areas including Upper Hill, Parklands, Kilimani and Lavington.
Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter, and Kenya Power Managing Director & CEO, Bernard Ngugi on May 6, inspected the affected section and expressed optimism of better power supply for residents.
