Siemens signs Sh1.76bn electricity supply deal with Ketraco

France’s Siemens Transmission & Distribution SAS has signed a Sh1.76 billion (€15.9 million) deal with the government to build a power sub-station at Suswa near Narok.

The facility will serve as a key exchange point for electricity supplies generated from various renewable energy projects in the Rift Valley.

The government and several private investors are carrying out geothermal, wind and hydro-generated power projects in the Rift Valley that require entry and exchange point into the national grid.

The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) said the 220 kilo volt (Kv) facility will also handle supplies on lines interconnected with Uganda through the Olkaria–Lessos–Tororo line, Tanzania through the Suswa-Isinya-Arusha line and in Ethiopia through the planned Kenya-Ethiopia line.

“The contract for 220kV Suswa grid sub-station will initially be operated at 200/220kV until the connection from the Ethiopia-Kenya line is complete and will contribute significantly in reinforcing the Kenya national power grid which will require a 400/220kV substation,” the company said in a statement. Efforts to get the project construction schedule from Ketraco officials were unsuccessful.

Shaky energy supplies

Kenya seeks to import up to 400 megawatts of power from Ethiopia to help stabilise its shaky energy supplies, which investors have blamed for the high cost of doing business and therefore eroding the competitiveness of goods in regional markets.

The power line will go up to Sodo in Ethiopia.

The International Development Association, African Development Bank, the French Development Agency and the government will fund the project.

Imported power from Ethiopia is expected to cost about $5 cents a kilowatt hour compared to some power plants in Kenya that cost above $10 cents a kilowatt hour.

The proposed transmission line will cross from Ethiopia into Kenya about 90km west of Moyale town and traverses Marsabit, Samburu, Isiolo, Laikipia, Nyandarua and Nakuru counties.

From Moyale, the transmission line route runs adjacent to the Marsabit-Moyale road southwards avoiding the Marsabit National Park.