Kenya Power in Sh2.2bn Juja station upgrade after 50 years

Kenya Power has awarded a Swiss company Sh2.2 billion contract for the first upgrade of the 50-year-old Juja substation.

The Zurich-based ABB power company’s $24 million contract will see the major power distributer for Nairobi and satellite towns upgraded. The project is expected to increase the grid stability and avoid blackouts.

“The modernised indoor substation will help enhance power supplies to meet the increasing demand for electricity from residential consumers and businesses operating in the city,” said Claudio Facchin, ABB Power Systems division head. The upgrade will also see the Juja station utilise its space to reduce pollution.

“ABB’s compact saving gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) technology will reduce the substation’s footprint significantly while enhancing aesthetics and increasing safety, efficiency and reliability,” he added.

The upgrade will raise the substation’s transformer capacity by more than 50 per cent. This is part of a Sh18.7 billion network upgrade planned by Kenya Power.

ABB is expected to finish the upgrade in the next two years.

“Other projects in the pipeline and which are aimed at stabilising voltages and enhancing quality of power supply include refurbishment of the Juja Road 132/66kV sub-station at the National Control Centre,” said Kenya Power in its 2014 annual report.

“Others are construction of 220/66kV sub-stations in Nairobi’s Central Business District and Thika Road; a 66/11kV sub-station in Thika North; and a 132/33kV sub-station in Kutus. These projects will be implemented by 2017 at a cost of $208 million.”

The Kenya Power upgrade will also cater for increased power expected into the national grid as a result of the government’s initiative to increase energy production to 5,000 megawatts by 2017.

Kenya Power has been borrowing from banks for the upgrade. In November last year, the electricity distributer borrowed Sh17 billion from Standard Chartered which was followed by a Sh2.28 billion loan from the African Finance Corporation in January.

Kenya Power made Sh6.4 billion in net profit for the year ended June 2014, an 88 per cent increase from Sh3.4 billion a year earlier while sales increased by 30.6 per cent.

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data shows in 2014, power lost due to distribution system weaknesses stood at 1.66 billion kilowatt hours (units), compared to 2013 losses of 1.87 billion units as systems improved.