Nairobi, July 18: Eighteen percent of Kenyans are connected to electricity but KenGen projects this will grow to 20% by next year.
Demand will be about 2 500MW in 2013, when the extra 2 000MW of clean power will be running, said Albert Mugo, business development and strategy director at the country’s biggest power producer.
“It’s expected to cost about $7bn to $8bn, and we are seeking investors,” Mugo said. “The government is organising an investors’ conference in September to identify who would be interested in developing this project.”
“The projections for power demand have already taken into account the rapid expansion in the rural areas,” he said, adding that 200 000 customers are to be connected annually.
Mugo said a mix of private investment, government and development agency funding would provide the money for the ambitious project.
Less polluting technology
The government plans 500MW from geothermal, 600MW of coal, 800MW from wind turbines, 30-50MW generated as a bi-product of sugar manufacture and 30MW from hydroelectricity.
KenGen is already setting up some wind turbines and a private company plans a 300MW wind farm in Kenya’s north eastern region by 2012. “There will be 27 new turbines giving 23MW additional power,” he said adding that the project will be supported by the Belgian and Spanish governments.
Nairobi was also studying the feasibility of generating power from coal using the latest, less polluting technology. A 600MW coal power station at the port city of Mombasa would initially run on imported coal, Mugo said.
He said that tenders for the coal plant should be in by September and it would take about three years for the power to be on stream.
Insufficient rain has forced KenGen to close a 14MW dam this year, but the company will put up emergency generation capacity to avoid outages, Mugo said.
“The cost of not having power is more than the cost of emergency power,” he said.
The chance of heavy rain associated with the el Nino phenomenon may be bad for farmers, but good news for KenGen, Mugo said.
Geothermal power
“We have had good news from the weather department and we can expect el Nino in the next three months to help us fill the depleted dams,” he said.
Kenya’s installed electricity capacity is 1 296 MW of which KenGen generates 77% mainly through hydroelectric dams. Another 12% is generated through geothermal power.
Of KenGen’s 1 005MW part of Kenya’s power mix, 73% is from hydrodams, 11% geothermal and 0.5% wind. The rest is from generators running on expensive diesel and gas.
“Fuel prices have been very erratic with crude oil rising to above $140 per barrel. It’s very expensive for the economy so green energy will insulate us from volatility,” Mugo said.
—Agencies