Energy secretary Davies Chirchir: "We are looking at savings of about Sh28bn per year in fuel cost charges when the final 70MW comes online." PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
KenGen added the first batch of 70MW in July and a similar amount in August from the from the Sh115.4 billion ($1.3 billion) Olkaria project billed as Africa’s largest steam development.
The Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has added a further 70 megawatts of geothermal power to the national grid, pointing to lower electricity bills from reduced reliance on costly thermal power.
This brings to 210MW the total steam power connected to the Kenyan electricity network from the multi-billion shilling Olkaria geothermal project—whose total capacity is 280MW.
KenGen added the first batch of 70MW in July and a similar amount in August from the from the Sh115.4 billion ($1.3 billion) Olkaria project billed as Africa’s largest steam development.
“We are looking at overall savings of about Sh28 billion per year in fuel cost charges when the final 70MW comes online in November,” said Energy secretary Davies Chirchir.
The additional geothermal energy more than doubles KenGen’s steam power output to the current 398MW from 158MW in December last year, and is expected to cut demand for the expensive thermal sources by the same margin.
KenGen managing director Albert Mugo said increased geothermal sources will be used as base-load— the amount of electricity available at all times to meet average demand—to effectively displace thermal power.
“We added today at 9 am an additional 70 megawatts from Olkaria. This will displace diesel power plants and the fuel cost component in electricity bills will come down,” Mr Mugo said.
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