Kenya backdates solar export rules by 14 months with no explanation
Serguey Asael Shinder2 min readKenya's Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority has formally codified charges for unauthorised solar exports and confirmed its net-metering credit provisions in a statement that takes legal effect retroactively to 1 July 2025 — more than fourteen months before it was reported. pv magazine covered it on 22 September 2026, noting the changes were reported on 21 September and that neither the government nor local media have explained the backdating.
The amendment introduces a definition of "dumping": the unauthorised injection of electricity from a customer's generation system into Kenya Power and Lighting Co.'s network without company approval or a valid net-metering agreement. Energy dumped into the grid is billed at the standard base tariff, and EPRA or KPLC may pursue further action if the practice damages equipment.
The 50% export credit is not new: it traces to Kenya's Energy (Net-Metering) Regulations of 2024, effective July that year. The statement formalises the existing rate within the tariff schedule rather than cutting it. The credit applies before pass-through costs, taxes and levies are calculated. Net metering stays capped at 1 MW installed per customer, further constrained by each customer's maximum recorded demand over the prior twelve months; commercial and industrial customers above that must use embedded-generation or open-access arrangements instead. Formal approval requires bidirectional metering and EPRA-licensed installation — conditions some industry observers say not all earlier installations meet, though no public estimates exist.
EPRA has issued no enforcement notices or retroactive billing advisories under the new definition, and neither the Kenya Renewable Energy Association nor installer organisations have commented. The same notice sets an e-mobility tariff of KES 16 per unit standard and KES 8 off-peak, removing a prior 15,000 kWh monthly cap.
What it means
The backdating is the story, and its practical weight depends entirely on enforcement. A rule that becomes law fourteen months before anyone is told creates a period in which conduct was compliant when performed and non-compliant in retrospect. Nothing has been billed under it yet. That is the fact to hold: the exposure is legal, not yet financial.
The conditions for formal approval are where that exposure could land. If bidirectional metering and licensed installation are required, and if some existing systems do not meet those conditions, then the "dumping" definition describes a population rather than an abuser. Whether the regulator intends it that way is not stated anywhere in the notice.
Worth noting what did not change: the 50% credit rate, which a headline about new charges could easily be read as introducing. It dates from 2024, and codifying it in the tariff schedule is housekeeping.