Kenya Power to convert its 2,000 vehicles to electric over 4 years

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Kenya's sole power distributor, Kenya Power, aims to convert its 2,000 petrol and diesel-driven vehicles to electric over the next four years, it said on Tuesday, 7 February.

The move is part of a rising trend in the East African economy to take advantage of the abundant electricity supply from renewable sources, and switch vehicle and motorcycle engines to electric from fossil fuels.

Kenya Power will phase out its petrol and diesel vehicles by retrofitting electric engines and buying new electric vehicles.

Kenya has installed generation capacity of 3,321MW against a peak demand of 2,132MW and off-peak demand of about 1,100MW, according to Kenya Power.

"Charging electric vehicles especially at night would, therefore, help bridge the gap between off-peak load available generation capacity as well as raise the average demand to above 1,500MW," it said in a statement.

The company distributes electricity to more than three-quarters of Kenya's population.