Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) plans to rehabilitate its oldest geothermal power plant whose first unit was commissioned in 1981.

KenGen Acting Managing Director Abraham Serem says the revamp Olkaria 1 to increase its generation capacity from 45MW to 63MW and upgrade the turbines for units 4 and 5 to increase their output by 40MW.

KenGen has lined up 305MW of geothermal projects consisting 280MW in Olkaria and 25MW from the Eburru geothermal field as it seeks increase its generation capacity.

In December 2018, KenGen broke ground for the construction of Unit 6 of Olkaria I Geothermal Power Station, with a generation capacity of 83MW.

Serem says the company will this year leverage new technologies to rehabilitate the 45MW Olkaria I and increase its generation capacity to about 63MW.