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Water & Energy

KENYA
WATER
INDUSTRY
ASSOCIATION

Kenya Commercial Bank, Housing Finance and Family
Bank. The financing scheme is a commercial loan for
any or all EE measures a WSP is willing to implement.
SUWASA is also keen to assist WSP’s develop bankable
RE projects such as mini-hydro, wind, biogas and solar.
With support from SWAP-bfz, SUWASA have already
met with 15 WSPs since May 2013. Out of the 15, a
number have been selected based on financial analysis by
SUWASA for immediate implementation. For SUWASA,
the investments are short-term with immediate impact
and a short payback period, making for very attractive
investment for commercial banks.
Current WSPs working on their EE & RE measures with
SUWASA are Limuru WSP (solar powered solar pumps);
Thika WSP (soft starters; efficient motors & LED
lighting retrofit); Embu (extending connections to a rural
un-served area known as Kiritiri); Meru WSP (expansion
of the water intake and extensions to un-served
areas); Nakuru WSP (solar powered electric pumps
for boreholes), and others. Thika WSP has an ongoing
feasibility study in preparation for implementation of a
130kW potential mini-hydro power plant.
Through commercial financing, WSPs will implement
simple EE measures with quick returns and unique RE
measures, from solar powered solar pumps to mini-hydro
projects, to generating their own biogas plants to run
their own wastewater treatment plants. WSPs can also
extend connections to rural un-served areas, rehabilitate
their existing network and expand their water intake.

WASPA Support
The Water Service Providers’ Association (WASPA)
strives to support their members in improving and
providing better services to their customers. For instance,
together with its partner SWAP-bfz, WASPA was aware
of the high electricity costs and introduced energy audits
to their members.
WASPA will continue its efforts to make Energy Audits
available for their members and has negotiated an
attractive, affordable price lower than the market rate
for each energy audit for the year 2014. This is because
water and sanitation utilities are not really mainstream
profit making entities. This price will be reviewed again
in 2015. WASPA will also assist members in finding
financial support for implementation of energy efficiency
and renewable energy measures. WASPA is in constant
touch with the financiers cited in this article but is also
searching for new financiers.

Decreasing energy consumption, and therefore the costs
for the WSPs, will be even more important in the future.
The country’s energy regulator, the Energy Regulatory

The retired Water Services Providers Association Chairman
Eng. Njoroge speaking during the launch of the Energy
Audit Report on 13th July 2012
Commission (ERC), recently approved a new electricity
tariffs that took effect in December 2013 and will run
up to June 2016 when another tariff review takes place.
The price of electricity for large consumers will therefore
be going up by at least 8%, though ERC indicates that
they anticipate this increase to be short-term and to be
reversed once cheaper energy generation projects (such as
the geothermal plants) are commissioned.
It is wor Ѡ