Kenya Power has denied reports of inflating customers’ electricity bills.

The alleged inflation was first reported by the Business Daily newspaper on Monday, based on a report by the Auditor General after a forensic review of the country’s electricity generation, transmission and distribution.

According to the report, the utility company has been overcharging customers by up to 20 per cent for the power they did not use. The extra charges are not traceable in its billing system.

Through a statement on Tuesday, Kenya Power denied the allegations and termed the newspaper report as misleading and non-factual.

The company said all its electricity bills are computed based on customer consumption of the difference between the current meter reading and the previous month’s reading.

“The approved base tariffs, levies and taxes are then applied to the consumption to compute the customer's monthly bill,” said the utility.

The report raised concern over the miscalculation of system losses attributed to the use of outdated study reports, partial simulations and arithmetical errors, to which Kenya Power said some power system losses were allowed in tariffs.

“Part of power system losses are inevitable during transmission and distribution of power; therefore, the regulator sets a threshold for the allowable system losses that is factored in the tariff,” said the company.

Kenya Power said the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) has allowed system losses up to a maximum of 18.5% in the current financial year, adding that it meets the cost of system losses incurred above what is allowed.

“Each month, the regulator checks and verifies that Kenya Power charges customers based on the approved rates,” the company said.

The report also claimed that Kenya Power recorded 23.98 per cent system losses in 2020/2021 yet the approved loss was 19 per cent, while in 2021/2022, the system loss was 22.44 per cent against the approved efficiency loss of 19 per cent.

Further, the utility denied allegations that only 38 of the 96 generation plants supplying it with power had backup meters, also known as check meters.

It maintained that it has one hundred delivery points from fifty-eight power suppliers it buys electricity through, all of which have been verified to have both main and check meters.