Kenya's power imports up 63.7pc after Uganda offer

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Kenya’s electricity imports shot up by 63.7 percent in the first eight months compared to a similar period last year despite official data showing the country generates more power than it consumes.
The Energy ministry attributes the sharp growth to a 50 percent tariff cut that Uganda offered Kenya from June.
Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter said the ministry opted for the cheaper imports to supply the western parts of the country whose demand has been on the rise.
The region is also yet to be hooked onto the geothermal power from Olkaria.

Kenya’s electricity imports shot up by 63.7 percent in the first eight months compared to a similar period last year despite official data showing the country generates more power than it consumes.

The Energy ministry attributes the sharp growth to a 50 percent tariff cut that Uganda offered Kenya from June.

Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter said the ministry opted for the cheaper imports to supply the western parts of the country whose demand has been on the rise. The region is also yet to be hooked onto the geothermal power from Olkaria.

“The Muhoroni generator which largely supplies the region is Sh35 per unit compared to Uganda’s power which was Sh22 per unit before June and is now Sh14 per unit,” Mr Keter said

“And by end of this month we’ll be buying from Uganda at Sh10 and being a hydro power, it gives us a lot of stability in the region even as demand continues to rise”.

Kenya bought 153.06 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity from Uganda from January to August and an additional 2.48 GWh from Ethiopia, according to the latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

The total purchase represents a 64 percent rise compared to last year’s 94.98GWh over a similar period.

Western region is periodically affected by lack of stable power supply from baseload sources like hydro and geothermal due to lack of a transmission line from Olkaria where Kenya generates half of its electricity.

The region relies on the 65 megawatt diesel generator in Muhoroni and imports from Uganda to serve homes and industries.

The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company is expected to complete 300-kilometre line from the Olkaria-Lessos-Kisumu to evacuate the geothermal power.

The move is expected to further improve the cost and quality of power. Construction of more transmission lines and substations is ongoing to evacuate the geothermal power to other parts of the country like the coast where the Mariakani substation is nearing completion.

The government has started retiring expensive thermal sources of power for more affordable options under the least cost power plan which is part of the wider strategy to achieve universal power supply by 2022.

Preference for geothermal is underpinned by the fact that it is a renewable energy source, environmentally friendly and with relatively low generation tariffs.