EPRA Licensing in Kenya

Who EPRA is and what it regulates

The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) is the national regulator for electricity, petroleum, and renewable energy in Kenya. For solar PV, EPRA licenses three categories: solar PV technicians (individuals), solar PV contractors (companies), and solar water heating (a separate regulation). Anyone selling, designing, installing, testing, or commissioning a solar PV system above 100 Wp in Kenya must hold the appropriate licence.

The legal basis sits in the Energy (Solar Photovoltaic Systems) Regulations 2012, updated several times since. The current technician and contractor licensing categories are T1, T2, and T3.

The three technician tiers, in plain terms

T1 — Solar PV Technician

Entry-level. Can install and maintain systems up to 400 Wp. In practice, T1 covers small solar home systems, lighting kits, phone-charging stations, and the smallest PAYGo packages. A T1 cannot legally touch a residential rooftop system above 400 Wp.

Eligible after foundation training plus a practical exam at an EPRA-approved training centre.

T2 — Solar PV Technician

Mid-level. Can install and maintain systems above 400 Wp up to 50 kWp. This is the tier that covers most residential and small commercial rooftop installations, school systems, clinic backups, and small irrigation pumps. A T2 cannot touch a system above 50 kWp without a T3 supervisor on site.

Eligible with at least two years of T1 experience plus the T2 examination.

T3 — Solar PV Technician

Senior-level. Can install and maintain any size of system, including utility-scale arrays, mini-grids, large commercial rooftops, and large pumping installations. A T3 also supervises T2 and T1 technicians on multi-skilled jobs.

Eligible with at least three years of T2 experience plus the T3 examination. Most working T3 technicians in Kenya hold additional international certifications (IRENA, PVGAP, or vendor-specific certifications) on top.

Contractor classes — separate from technician licences

A company that contracts solar work must hold a contractor licence, which is independent of the technicians it employs. Contractor classes mirror the technician tiers (C1, C2, C3) and limit the scale of jobs the company can take on as a corporate entity. The contractor must employ at least one technician of the corresponding tier, plus a registered professional engineer for class C3.

Contractor licences are renewed annually. The licence number takes the form EPRA/SPV/XXX and is the single most useful piece of verification before signing a contract.

What is illegal — and why it matters

• An unlicensed installer touching a system above 100 Wp. The system has no legal status, no insurance coverage on workmanship, and KPLC may refuse to interconnect or commission grid-tie inverters.
• A T1 installing a 5 kW residential system. Out of scope. Common practice in the informal market and a frequent source of fires from undersized wiring and missing surge protection.
• A T2 installing a 100 kW commercial rooftop without T3 supervision. Out of scope. Risk: undersized DC string sizing, missing rapid shutdown, and improper earthing.
• A licensed contractor sub-contracting to an unlicensed installer. Still illegal even with the right corporate paperwork. The licensee is responsible for the work done in their name.

How to verify a contractor before signing

1. Ask for the EPRA contractor licence number and the technician licence numbers of every individual who will work on site. Photograph the physical licences if possible.
2. Cross-check on the EPRA register at www.epra.go.ke. The register is public and updated. If the number is not on the register, the licence is fake or expired.
3. Confirm the licence covers your system size. A C2 contractor cannot legally build a 200 kW commercial rooftop. Ask to see C3 documentation if your system is above 50 kWp.
4. Ask for three reference sites of similar scale. Visit one if you can. Photographs from a phone are not a substitute for seeing how a roof was actually mounted.
5. Get the design signed and stamped by the contractor’s registered engineer for any project above 50 kWp. Required for KPLC grid-tie approval and for insurance.

The licensing path for your own team

If you are training internal staff to operate or maintain a system, you are not legally required to put them through EPRA — that is for people installing for hire. But there are good reasons to do it anyway. EPRA-trained technicians follow standardised safe-work practices, can supervise external contractors, and give institutional buyers a credible counterparty to whatever vendor they hire. Kinawa runs T1, T2, and T3 programmes aligned to the EPRA examination syllabus and the practical assessment.