Nairobi, March 31 -- Kenya is betting on increased uptake of electric vehicles to reduce overloading on the ageing power transmission network.

The government says electricity curtailment - any action meant to reduce the amount of energy generated within a system to balance between demand and supply - will reduce blackouts that occur when the transmission network breaks down due to overloading.

The Ministry of Transport says that the electricity curtailed daily, estimated at 1,357 megawatt hours (MWh) is enough to power 7,000 electric buses, each with a battery capacity of 180kWh-200 kWh, over a 200-kilometre distance.

Official data by Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) shows that 495,437MWh of energy were curtailed betwee...