The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) has opened up five high-voltage power transmission line construction projects for competitive bidding by interested private investors.
Ketraco, a fully State-owned agency formed in December 2008 to build transmission infrastructure, wants to build the five projects through the public-private partnership (PPP) framework.
The projects include constructing the 132 kilovolt (kV) Meru-Maua line, the 53km 220kV Kwale-Shimoni (Kibuyuni) line and the 7km 132kV Kipevu-Mbaraki line.
Ketraco plans to have the projects completed between 2026 and 2030. The firm said it is pivoting to PPPs to accelerate the construction of new transmission lines to alleviate pressure on the existing aging lines.
“Typically, the project cycle for the development financing partners is five to eight years; from the concept note to commissioning to project closure to a new project,” said Ketraco on Monday.
“Thus, the next set of funding from development financing partners might be around the financial year 2028/29,” it added.
Ketraco also plans to build 10 projects through privately-initiated proposals (PIP). PIPs are a form of PPPs that are initiated by an interested investor.
The company has already received three PIPs with two of them having reached the negotiation stage and the third is still in the proposal stage.
The PIPs that Ketraco is negotiating are with Adani Energy Solutions Limited, which is a subsidiary of India’s Adani Group, and a joint venture between Africa50 and the PowerGrid of India. The firm has also received a proposal from French State-owned firm EDF for the construction of four power transmission projects.
Ketraco has been financing its projects through taxes, loans, and grants, but this financing model has become limited in light of the constrained public fiscal space, necessitating the pivot to PPPs.
The government estimates that there is a financing gap of Sh650 billion to undertake the construction of power transmission projects across the country.
