Wind power company signs Sh3.2bn road building deal

The Lake Turkana Wind Power has signed a road construction contract to open up Africa’s largest wind farm, bringing the 300 megawatts project closer to reality.

The Sh3.2 billion tender for building transmission lines and access roads was awarded to Civicon on Monday.

The company will rehabilitate 204 kilometres of access roads and another 109 kilometres within the site.

The project co-financed by the Spanish Government, various international lenders and Kenya aims to provide low cost wind power at a cost of Sh75 billion.

“The road will open up northern Kenya for trade, make Marsabit County accessible and allow for other potential investors to set up new businesses,” said John Latham, Civicon project manager.

Construction of the road will take 15 months, paving way for the delivery of 365 Vestas wind turbines and the Siemens transformers to the site.

“Construction on the power plant will begin immediately after this... Up to 90 megawatts of electricity could be commissioned by early 2014,’’ he said.
The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (Ketraco) has said it would start construction of a double circuit 400kv, 428km transmission line next month to deliver the electricity to consumers.

Managing director Joel Kiilu said Spanish firm Isolax would build the Sh15 billion transmission line between Loiyangalani district and Suswa, near Mt Longonot.

The Lake Turkana Wind Power consortium comprises KP&P Africa B.V. and Aldwych International as co-developers, Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC), Industrial Fund for Developing Countries (IFU), Wind Power A.S. (Vestas) and Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund).

Aldwych, an Africa focused power company, will oversee the construction and operations of the power plant on behalf of LTWP. Vestas will maintain the plant in contract with LTWP.

The electricity produced will be bought at a fixed price by Kenya Power over a 20-year period in accordance with the signed Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

The lead arranger of the debt financing is the African Development Bank with Standard Bank of South Africa and Nedbank Capital of South Africa as co-arrangers.