Let’s begin by differentiating the prepaid meter system from the postpaid meter system. The prepaid system entails paying your electricity consumption before using electricity while postpaid meter system entails being billed for your electricity consumption at the end of the month after you have used electricity.

That aside, the prepaid and postpaid billing systems are more or less the same, in both charges are pegged on the number of units you have bought or consumed.  A significant difference though arises in the sense that, unlike in the postpaid system where charges such as fuel cost charge, forex, inflation adj, Rural Electrification Project (REP) levy and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) levy are incurred once your monthly electricity bill, in the prepaid system you will incur the above charges every time you buy tokens. For instance you buy tokens five times in a month, you will incur the above charges five times within a month. This perhaps explains why the prepaid meter system seems to be more expensive when compared to the postpaid meter system. It is also important to note that the rates for the above charges do fluctuate within any given month.

Here comes the complex part, variation in the number of units one gets.

Electricity consumers under the prepaid system complain of getting different number of units for the same amount of tokens purchased.Why is it so?

Electricity units are charges as follows:

• The first 0 to 50 units consumed are charged at the rate of Ksh 2.00 per unit
• Additional units from 51 to 1,500 units are charged at the rate of Ksh 8.10 per unit
• Additional units consumed above 1,500 units will each be charged at the rate of Ksh 18.57 per unit.

The above is applicable in both the postpaid and prepaid billing system.

The variation in the number of units one gets is greatly influenced by how electricity units are charged as illustrated above. For instance kshs 700 might get get you 50 units, one would assume that an additional ksh 700 might get you the same number of units, but in reality, this won't be the case. The previous 50 units were each bought at the rate of Ksh 2.00, since the consumer has already purchased 50 units, additional units bought within the same month will be bought at the rate of Kshs 8.10 per unit up to 1,500 units, this explains the variation in the number of units one gets.

• To avoid incurring the fuel cost charge, forex adj, ERC levy and REP levy repeatedly, buy 1 token a month. When you buy additional tokens within a month you will incur the above charges each time you buy the tokens.
• Limit your electricity consumption to 50 units, these units are charged at the rate of Ksh 2.00 per unit, based on the accumulative nature of the prepaid system, additional units will be bought at the rate of Ksh 8.10 per units, thus reducing the number of units you get for the same value of tokens.