The State has picked a consortium of two firms, Grid Solution SAS and India's Larsen & Toubro, to build a new €85 million (Sh12.26 billion at current exchange rates) national electricity dispatch hub to be managed by the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco).
The National System Control Centre (NSCC) is currently located on Nairobi’s Juja Road was run by Kenya Power until January 2022 when the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra) handed the role to Ketraco.
Officers at the NSCC work around the clock to balance supply and demand on the national power grid. They decide on who provides electricity at any given time and collaborate with network operators across the system.
The NSCC has the main role of forecasting and managing the flow of energy and balancing supply and demand on a second-by-second basis. This ensures that electricity is provided across the national grid in a timely, reliable, and affordable manner as possible.
What is the key focus?
The key focus is to ensure uninterrupted service, using the cheapest power available on the system at any given time.
The officials at the NSCC use forecasting models to predict how much electricity will be needed, where it’s needed, and when.
This involves broad-based reviews such as looking at weather patterns and capturing the patterns and potential impact in real-time.
For instance, the direction of wind may affect the wattage of electricity generated from the source. The forecasting also extends to consumption patterns and behaviour in that demand may peak at certain times when entire families are at home having entertainment or cooking and fall afterward when they switch off lights and equipment after going to bed.
The demand predictions can be short-term or seasonal.
How does the NSCC balance power on the grid?
The centre uses predictions from demand forecasts to supply electricity. To balance supply and demand, officials strive to keep the system frequency as close as possible to 50 Hertz (Hz) – the frequency at which Kenya’s devices operate.
The frequency is monitored in real-time such that if demand for electricity rises, the NSCC officials ask producers to increase their output or risk a drop in the frequency required on the grid. The reverse applies when demand falls. If a generator’s supplies are interrupted, the lost output is quickly mitigated by the activation of reserves or backup generation to keep the frequency stable.
What is the current energy mix in the grid?
Currently, geothermal accounts for the biggest share of electricity in the national grid at 43.7 percent or 3,147.5 kilowatt hours (kWh) followed by hydro-power at 30.5 percent or 2,202.03 kWh.
Electricity generated from wind sources accounts for 13.34 percent of 960.47 kWh, the dirty thermal plants came fourth with 623.79 kWh (8.67 percent) while solar holds 3.67 percent or 263.79 kWh. This is based on official data on the total electricity that was generated locally from January to July this year.
How does the cost per unit of electricity from the various sources compare?
Currently, hydro is the cheapest source of electricity to the national grid with a unit retailing at Sh3.83, followed by a unit of geothermal power at Sh10.28 and a unit of imported hydro-electricity at Sh10.69.
This is based on the data on the average cost of a unit of electricity as of February this year.
Who runs the NSCC?
The old NSCC, currently located on Nairobi’s Juja road, had been run by Kenya Power until January 2021 when Epra stripped it of the role of a system operator.
The decision to hand over the NSCC to Ketraco is in line with the provisions of Section 138 (1) of the Energy Act of 2019.
Why did Epra take away the NSCC role from KPLC?
The Energy Act, of 2019 stripped the utility of the role to eliminate conflict of interest by requiring the system operator to be a neutral player that is not involved in buying or selling electricity.
Ketraco was also charged with keeping records of the quantity and quality of electricity supplied to the grid in a bid to end the secrecy that Kenya Power had been holding over its use of the merit order.
This is after Kenya Power increasingly came under pressure in recent years over its running of the grid amid accusations that it had put a lid on the grid operations to avoid scrutiny.
