Corporate News
A geothermal well at the Menengai Crater in Nakuru. PHOTO | FILE
By WAINAINA WAMBU
Electricity generating company KenGen
is set to boost its geothermal output following the discovery of steam
wells that can generate up to 375 megawatts at its Olkaria fields.
The wells will be used to develop three power plants with total capacity of 350MW.
KenGen said it would continue to drill wells to
supply steam for an additional 70MW unit at the recently commissioned
Olkaria I unit four and five plants.
“The available steam is 374.7MW. This is for
Olkaria 1 Unit 6, a single unit of 70MW to be constructed at Olkaria 1.
Available steam for this plant is 84MW,” said KenGen’s director for
geothermal development, Abel Rotich.
Other projects are the 140MW Olkaria V and Olkaria
VI plants, which the company plans to develop in the next two to four
years. The 140MW Olkaria V, KenGen’s next project, is set to kick off
before the end of the year.
“Olkaria V Power Plant is a 140MW Project. Steam
available for this plant is 166.4 MW while the other 140MW Olkaria VI
plant has 124.3 MW of available steam.”
KenGen has already hired consultants for the project and is in the process of selecting contractors.
Negotiations for funding are progressing well with development partners, said the State-owned firm.
The drilling programme is nearing completion and
its aim was to supply steam for over 400MW that is planned for
development in the next two to four years.
“Testing of other wells is in progress. We are also
drilling more wells which shall cover our requirements going forward,”
he said.
The remaining steam will be used at the wellheads
programme to ensure that the steam available is converted to
electricity, pending construction of the power plants. This far, the
wellhead generation units are providing a total of 45MW of electricity.
KenGen said three wells-pad 921 have been tested and proven to give a total output of 32.7 MW.
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