Corporate News
TTDI managing director Katsutoshi Toda (left) with Kenya Power chief
executive Ben Chumo on August 25, 2016. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA
By NEVILLE OTUKI, notuki@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
Kenya Power
will replace the oil in transformers with gas to bar vandals from
accessing the fuel in fresh efforts to cushion consumers from power
interruptions.
The utility firm Thursday entered a pact with a subsidiary
of Japan’s Toshiba Corporation to instal several gas-insulated
transformers on a pilot basis before going full scale.
The transformers will use carbon dioxide as opposed
to oil. Vandals eye the toxic oil that is drawn from transformers,
which is reportedly used for frying food in roadside stalls.
The deal will also see the India-based subsidiary,
Toshiba Transmission & Distribution Systems (TTDI), instal more
efficient units dubbed amorphous distribution transformers, to reduce
electricity losses due to equipment inefficiencies.
“These efforts aim to strengthen power supply and
reduce losses as the network grows in tandem with increased [numbers of]
customers,” Kenya Power managing director Ben Chumo said during the
signing ceremony in Nairobi.
Kenya Power is losing Sh17.5 billion annually
through electricity thefts and leakages from an ageing transmission
network, translating to lost earnings to shareholders of the listed
utility.
The company is now banking on the use of the more
efficient transformers and a reduced length of transmission lines to cut
the losses to below 10 per cent.
This is the latest in a string of initiatives by
the utility to stop the theft of transformers, which is partly to blame
for blackouts.
The power distributor recently started placing
transformers above live wires to curb their theft. The World Bank says
Kenyans stay without power for 25 days a year on average due to
blackouts.
Kenya Power has had to contend with increasing
connections, particularly in rural areas, pushing the number of
households on the grid to 4.9 million from one million in 2010.
The number is set to grow even further with the
rollout of the Last Mile connectivity project where homes will be
connected to the national grid at Sh15,000 down from Sh35,000. The
India-based TTDI has been supplying Kenya Power with transformers since
2004.
“This deal reflects Kenya Power’s positive
evaluation of TTDI’s high quality products and of our proposal to
contribute towards achieving stable electricity supply,” said TTDI
managing director Katsutoshi Toda.
In 2012, replacing transformers cost Kenya Power $4
million (Sh404 million). Kenya Power has had some success fighting
transformer vandalism in recent years.
In 2013, 535 transformers were vandalised across the country, down from 898 in 2011.
In 2013, 535 transformers were vandalised across the country, down from 898 in 2011.
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