American based technology venture, Powerhive is looking to expand its technology use to implement the way electricity is being distributed and consumed from rural Kenya and the rest of Africa.

The company’s technology monitors the electricity usage in homes and businesses regardless of what kind of energy source is being used.

Powerhive also partners with utility and independent power producers (IPPs) to provide suitable technology to monitor electricity use and give them easy billing options.

The company has already piloted its product to 1,500 homes and businesses in Kisii, western side of Kenya and now they are looking to partner with more IPPs across Africa.

Daniel Boucher communications officer at the company said that their solution is scalable than any other in the market.

“We developed a software programme to remotely identify suitable site locations and customers. This means market feasibility studies can be completed much faster, and much more cheaply than has previously been possible. The remote analysis saves time and money during the design process, because it calculates best locations for the generation sites and optimal layout of distribution lines,” Boucher told ITWeb Africa.

The company installs smart metres that collect data on how electricity is being consumed and sends it to their Honeycomb software that analyses consumption and financial performance. The system also detects faults in electricity delivery, enabling quick response to emergencies.

Boucher added, “Many microgrid companies send employees to regularly collect payment from their customers, which is costly, exposes the company to theft risk, and results in less than 100% payment collection. By building systems with more advanced technology and automation, we substantially reduce operations & maintenance costs as well as investment risk.”

Kenya Power, the main electricity supplier in Kenya, is currently implementing the smart metre programme for manufacturing companies and hopes to roll it to all consumers in due time.

Smart metres give real data on the consumption rate of electricity users, enabling them to plan well their energy needs.