Kenya hopes public private partnerships will help modernize the electricity distribution network to reduce the high system losses as well as steady supply especially in western Kenya that has been facing frequent power outages.
Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir says electricity demand in Western Kenya has risen in recent months straining the dilapidated network that needs modernization to evacuate electricity to the area.
Electricity supply system losses in Kenya reduced by 1.3pc to stand at 23.4pc currently from 24.8pc, which is still higher than the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority’s (EPRA) benchmark of 19.9pc.
This is partly blamed on an ageing electricity network that was blamed for Sunday’s outage where officials said was caused by an outage on a high voltage transmission line to Western Kenya.
To address this, the government hopes public private partnership will help inject the needed capital to modernize the electricity supply network.
As at June this year, Kenya had an installed capacity of 3,311 megawatts of electricity while the peak demand was at 2,149 megawatts.
Kenya is keen on interconnection of grids to facilitate electricity export.
Despite the high idle capacity, some areas in Kenya face frequent power black outs, and this is why.
EPRA says Mombasa’s Kipevu I Diesel Plant will be decommissioned later this month with its 60MW capacity replaced by renewable sources.
Trevor Ng'endo
