Kenya Power Meter Reading: Kenya Power has been stopped from using service men and women from the National Youth Service to read meters. This is after more than 300 workers at Kenya Power rushed to court to block the move.
The 320 employees through their union, the Kenya Electrical Trades and Allied Workers Union (Ketawu), petitioned the Employment and Labour Relations Court to stop Kenya Power from outsourcing the service to NYS. They argued that such a move amounted to breach of the collective bargaining agreement they had signed.
“In the meantime, the status quo pending as of today July 19, 2021 is to be maintained pending the inter partes hearing of the application,” ordered Justice Maureen Onyango.
Service officers from the National Youth Service were from this week expected to start collecting Kenya Power meter and connection details across the country in a partnership that was aimed at cleaning up the Facilities Database (FDB) digital platform data.
The clean up process will help the company capture, analyse, manage and store data on its transmission and distribution facilities by identify the meters in each Kenyan household and business premises to pinpoint where theft takes place. “ The objective of this exercise is to create visibility of the network on the FDB digital platform for efficient and effective service delivery,” Kenya Power managing director and chief executive officer Bernard Ngugi said.
The exercise has been funded by the World Bank under the Kenya Electricity Management Programme (KEMP) at a cost of Sh. 225 million. It will be covered by 770 NYS officers, 700 servicemen and women, and 70 supervisors.
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Kenya Power has so far digitized 70 per cent of its network comprising 83 transmission substations, 295 primary substations, 73,486 secondary substations (transformers)and 77,990.69 kms of high and medium voltage lines. The NYS partnership will now cover the remaining 30 per cent which will include the digitization of 166,623.84 kms of low voltage lines, and over 8.2 million customer meters.
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