State-owned Water Resources and Management Authority (Warma) has applied to Kenya’s energy regulator to revise the levy to 2 shilling per unit of power from the current 0.01 shillings per unit, Business Daily newspaper reported.

If approved by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra), the proposal will lead to power bills rising 88% per unit.

“There is a separate proposal from Warma besides the tariff review application made on behalf of the sector by Kenya Power. The impact of this (Warma proposal) is that the cost of power will rise further,” Epra Director General Daniel Kiptoo said.

The levy, charged on energy purchased from hydropower plants, aims to improve the water catchment areas to ensure water levels are sufficient to produce hydropower, the report said.

The levy is one of the seven charges per unit of power that are passed on to consumers.

Earlier, Kenya Power announced plans to raise the rate for electricity usage below 30 kWh per month to 28.01 shillings per unit, up from 20.70 shillings, an increase of 35.3%. The application is under Epra’s review.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com)