Oracle has entered a partnership with Kenya Power to implement a newer technology to handle over 250 transactions per second for more than 1.6 million customers being moved from a post-paid billing system to a prepayment environment.
The prepayment environment demands that the online transaction and database system dubbed Oracle Exadata X2-2  be 100% available at all times. KPLC needed to invest in new technology in order to guarantee this availability. The solution includes an automated storage management, a Linux operating system and storage management software, among others.
It has achieved performance increase for the power utility firm including improved cash flow as payments are received in advance, as well as a reduction in operating costs due to the elimination of monthly customer meter readings and production of monthly consumption statements for customers.

Tina Patel, Country Manager Oracle Kenya said " The Oracle Exadata Database Machine is rapidly becoming the foundation technology for many large business and enterprises and by selecting the technology, Kenya Power has already taken big steps towards decreasing operational costs, whilst also significantly boosting its transaction performance and providing better service to its large customer base".

For Kenya Power customers, they are able to budget for their own consumption in advance, avoiding accumulation of debt.

Kenya Power's decision to select the solution was due to the scalability of the machine - enabling them to invest based on their immediate need with a clear view of scaling the solution with future business demands.

James Kariuki, head of new business projects, system development and maintenance at Kenya Power, said "The solution is already delivering great benefits. The RAC architecture has ensured high system availability. Processing and storage is encapsulated, hence minimizing investments in external storage and telecommunications costs. Furthermore, the systems redundancies guarantees uninterrupted service provision, and automated Storage Management has simplified file system management.

Most importantly, the high performance has resulted in fast and timely provision of services to our customers."

Kenya Power's decision to select Oracle is due to the fact that it has a rich internal skill base for both Oracle database and hardware. This is in addition to the engineering of Oracle's products to work together hence enhancing high performance and availability.