Businesses added 72,800 kilowatts (kW) of solar energy for their own use in the year ended June 2026, extending a trend in which a growing number of firms are turning to self-generation of electricity to lower their monthly bills and ensure steady supplies of electricity.
The increase pushed self-generation of electricity, technically referred to as captive power, to 676.60MW in the year to June 2026, up from 603.8MW the previous year.
“This growth reflects continued uptake of distributed renewable energy solutions by commercial and industrial consumers to meet their electricity requirements,” the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) says in its latest review of the energy sector.
Many businesses are increasingly shifting to solar to cut costs and ensure a stable and reliable electricity supply. A growing list of manufacturers, including Bio Food Products, Total Energies Kenya, Maisha Mabati Mills, Simba Cement, Unilever Tea Kenya, British American Tobacco, Africa Logistics Properties, Bidco, Mabati Rolling Mills, Centum Real Estate, and Devyani Food Industries, have shifted to their own solar power generation to cut operational costs and lower emissions.
Beverages company Coca-Cola last year also received regulatory approval to set up solar plants at its plants in Embakasi in Nairobi and Kisumu. The combined capacity of the plants will be 3.98Megawatts (MW).
Fast-moving consumer goods firm Unilever Kenya is the latest firm to join the list of commercial and industrial clients using captive power, with a solar photovoltaic plant that will produce 1,500,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually.
“We have now completed installing solar at our facility that is generating 1,500 megawatt-hours (MWh) of solar power, and we estimate that it will save us about Sh30 million from our annual power bill,” Luke Ochieng, the Managing Director at Unilever East Africa, said.
Migration of these companies to solar power could, in the long run, impact Kenya Power, given that industries and firms are the biggest source of revenue to the electricity distributor. For instance, revenue from electricity sales to new Kenya Power customers dropped by Sh1.07 billion in the year to June 2026 despite increased connections, an indication of slowing economic expansion and increased adoption of off-grid solar alternatives.
Official data shows that Kenya Power’s new customers consumed 161.7 Gigawatt-hours (GWh) in the year to June, marking a 20 percent drop from 202.98 GWh a year ago, pulling down revenues from this customer segment to Sh4.05 billion from Sh5.12billion in the previous period, or a 26.41percent drop. The dip in unit sales and revenues came despite Kenya Power connecting 412,249 new customers in the 12 months to June 2026, up from 401,848 the previous year, with more than half of them, or 226,803, being commercial customers.
