Kenya Power to export 30MW to Rwanda

Kenya Power managing director Ben Chumo (second left) briefs engineers and Nakuru County officials during the commissioning of a Sh378 million substation in Bahati on September 10, 2015. SULEIMAN MBATIAH | 

In Summary

• In a bid to improve quality of power supply in the country, he disclosed that Kenya Power has lined up 252 projects in their current business plan worth Sh86 billion.
• At the same time Dr Chumo announced that in the current financial year, the company has set aside Sh10 billion to upgrade its aging network and reduce the power outage in the country.
• According to Dr Chumo the company has a customer base of 3.9 million clients and by 2017 the company hopes to increase connectivity by 70 per cent before achieving a 100 per cent connectivity by 2020.

By FRANCIS MUREITHI
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Kenya Power will in the next three months start exporting 30 megawatts of electricity to Rwanda.

Kenya Power Chief Executive Officer Ben Chumo on Thursday said his company had entered into a power purchase agreement with Rwanda to export the supply through Uganda.

“This program, which would earn Kenya Power millions of (shillings in) revenue is on and a fortnight ago we were in Rwanda to confirm the state of their distribution network to ascertain whether they can absorb the additional power and hopefully in the next three months or so we shall be supplying them with 30MW,” said Dr Chumo.

The CEO was speaking in Nakuru during the commissioning of the Sh387 million Bahati substation aimed at improving the power supply network to residents of Wanyororo, Kabatini, Murunyu and Ndundori townships.

In a bid to improve the quality of power supply in the country, he disclosed that Kenya Power has lined up 252 projects in its current business plan worth Sh86 billion.

AGING NETWORK

At the same time Dr Chumo announced that in the current financial year, the company has set aside Sh10 billion to upgrade its aging network and reduce power outages in the country.

According to Dr Chumo, the company has a customer base of 3.9 million clients and by 2017 it hopes to increase connections by 70 per cent before achieving a 100 per cent connectivity by 2020.

At least 3,000 new customers are connected to the national grid daily by the company, said Dr Chumo.

“We’re are focused at connecting at least one million customer per year and that is why today our company is rated as the fastest growing distribution company in the continent,” added Dr Chumo.

Dr Chumo said that due to the rapid connections through the project dubbed Last Mile, which has received Sh43.5 billion from the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank, other potential partners have indicated that they would like to partner with Kenya Power to upscale the program.

DR Chumo said the Nakuru substation would provide additional transmission capacity, improve supply in the area and reduce losses in the line through the reduction of the length of the feeder lines.

The CEO said the company will soon commission a similar project at Kabarak in Rongai Sub-County before the end of this year.