An electricity engineer has raised an alarm over new solar energy regulations approved by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA).
He warned Kenyan households and businesses with grid-connected solar systems could face unexpected charges under the new framework.
Speaking on NTV on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, engineer Isaac Ndereva said the regulations, published under Gazette Notice No. 15188 on September 18, 2026, and signed by Acting Director-General Joseph Oketch, create conditions where consumers who generate their own electricity risk being penalised if they are tied to the grid.
What does it mean to be tied to the grid?
According to Ndereva, you could be grid-tied if you are connected to Kenya Power such that the primary usage of your power comes from solar.
"In case there is a deficit in your usage compared with what you are generating, for example, you need 100 kilowatts but solar is only able to give you about 60, the deficit is supplemented by power from the grid," he explained.
"It balances between solar and the grid. At night, when you don't have solar, you get 100% of your power from Kenya Power. During the day, there is an automatic balancing act," he added.
The engineer noted that for those who have solar power but are not connected to the grid, there is no risk of penalty because the excess simply goes to waste and is not dumped back into the grid.
The 'Dumping' penalty explained
Ndereva identified the new definition of "dumping" as the most troubling provision in the regulations.
Dumping happens when a person who is connected to the grid has installed solar panels that can generate more than they can consume, and the excess ends up going back into the grid.
"But look at a situation where you're at work and your solar is generating 70 kilowatts, while you are only using around 20 because you have left a fridge and a few other things running. Your solar is generating 70, and you're using 20. Where does the excess go? It automatically reverses back to the grid because you are grid-tied. The system keeps balancing. Whichever side has less, the other side balances it.
"That is what Kenya Power is saying it doesn't like because sometimes they shut off the system so they can carry out maintenance. They have shut down the generating plant from their end and expect the line to be dead, but then you are injecting more power into it. You could kill their employees... This is very dangerous," he added.
Under the new rules, any electricity injected into Kenya Power's network from a consumer's generating system without prior approval or a valid net metering agreement is classified as dumped.
Energy categorised as dumped is then billed at the applicable base tariff.
"If you have a solar system that is grid-tied and you are producing more than you consume, and you have not gone through the formal net metering process, any excess power you send to the grid is now classified as dumping," Ndereva said.
He added that people will be charged at the full base tariff for electricity you are giving away for free.
He noted that qualifying for net metering requires bidirectional metering and installation by an EPRA-licensed technician, standards that some earlier solar setups do not meet, leaving those consumers exposed to the new penalties.
Net metering credit and the retroactive date
For consumers who have secured a formal net metering agreement, the regulations stipulate that each unit of electricity exported to the grid earns a credit equivalent to 50% of that unit against energy consumption.
However, pass-through costs, taxes, and levies are still applied to the total energy supplied before any credit is deducted.
"You are generating power, sending it to the grid, and getting only half of it back in credit," Ndereva said. "The other half is essentially free electricity for Kenya Power to sell to someone else."
A further concern raised by Ndereva is that the regulations carry a retroactive effective date of July 1, 2025, more than 14 months before they were gazetted.
This means solar installations connected to the grid during that period may already fall under rules that were not publicly available at the time of investment.
"People need to know the rules before they invest, not after," he said.
Ndereva advised any consumer with a grid-tied solar system to confirm whether they hold a valid net metering agreement with Kenya Power and, if not, to regularise their status or disconnect from the grid to avoid penalty charges.
New consumer categories
In other news, the regulations also formalised automatic movement between consumption tiers for domestic and small commercial customers based on a three-month moving average.
Domestic consumers are classified as DC1 for up to 30 kWh, DC2 for between 30 and 100 kWh, and DC3 for between 100 and 15,000 kWh.
For electric mobility users, the tariff sets an energy charge of KSh 16.00 per unit for standard consumption and KSh 8.00 per unit during off-peak hours.
