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AfrElec ELECTRIC VEHICLES AfrElec

Kenya Power poised to charge

electric cars during off-peak hours

KENYA KENYA Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) for new ways to grow sales, which is one of the
says it has the capcity to supply enough elecricity building blocks of our turn-around strategy as
to charge electric vehicles and motorcycles dur- we seek to enhance our commercial viability, and
ing off-peak hours. guarantee shareholder value,” Oduor said.
Kenya has an installed capacity of 2,991MW The Kenyan based start-up BasiGo, whose
of electricity and off-peak load of 1,200MW and mission is to create the future of clean, fully
hence enough power to support the entire e-mo- electric bus transport in Africa, recently raised
bility ecosystem, including powering charging $4.3mn in a seed funding round led by Novastar
stations for domestic and business use, Kenya Ventures. Kenya’s transport sector is dominated
Power acting CEO Rosemary Oduor said. by fossil fuel engine propelled buses associated
“For Kenya Power, the e-mobility evolution with pollution of environment.
provides us with an inorganic opportunity to “Notably, e-mobility, which is driving the
grow sales,” she said at the March 10 launch of green agenda, dovetails with the country’s
electric vehicle start-up BasiGo’s KES5mn bus. energy mix which currently comprises over 92%
Kenya Power has already established a liaison of renewable power, with our goal being to go
office to act as one-stop shop to support growth fully green by 2030,” said Oduor .
of its e-mobility business, Oduor said, which She said initial computations on size of busi-
will work with other stakeholders to support ness opportunity show an average minibus,
the development of the e-mobility eco-system, operating within Nairobi, covers about 200 kilo-
which will include the identification of sites for metres per day and consumes 120 kilowatt-hour
potential charging stations, as well as requisite (KWh) units at a cost of KES 2,400 ($21.02).
geo-mapping software to enable users locate the One thousand mini buses, operating within
nearest charging station. the city, would consume about 120 megawatt
As a consequence, in addition to BasiGo, the hour (MWh) per day. Based on this, Kenya
firm is in talks with five other e-mobility players Power has enough electricity to charge 50,000
who are either presently operating in the market, buses and 2 mn motorcycles during off-peak
or planning to make an entry with view working hours presenting viable business case to promote
together to develop industry. e-mobility agenda.™
“Kenya Power is constantly on the look-out

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 11 17•March•2022