Kennedy Senelwa
24 August 2008
Nairobi — The Kenya Power and Lighting Company will introduce a short message service to inform customers of impending planned electricity supply interruptions.
KPLC said notifying customers of planned electricity supply interruption using mobile phones is among the evolving technologies the firm is embracing.
The firm's managing director Joseph Njoroge said the system, to be launched in six months, will revolutionise the way the company interacts with customers by also giving updates on bills payment deadlines.
"The system will also be used to alert customers to avoid disconnection a day or two before their bills payment deadline among other uses," he said in an interview.
He said the utility company is currently holding negotiations with Safaricom and Zain (formerly Celtel) on rolling out to customers various services using mobile phone technologies.Platforms
He said electricity users in future will be able to pay their bills through various systems developed by mobile phone operators such as M-Pesa and Sokotele platforms of Safaricom and Zain respectively.
Eng Njoroge said KPLC will partners with progressive enterprises like supermarkets and banks to provide electronic bill payment service as convenient paying points for customers.
He said the electronic fund transfer system would soon be introduced for enterprises and other clients to remit payments easily to bank accounts of the power transmission and distribution utility.
The company is implementing the US$153 million (Sh10 billion) Energy Sector Recovery Project (ESRP) to reinforce and upgrade distribution infrastructure to improve quality and reliability of power.
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