Kenya drops on list of top hydropower producers

Masinga dam. Installed hydropower capacity remained unchanged at 818MW last year. FILE PHOTO | NMG 

By NEVILLE OTUKI

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Summary

• Kenya’s installed hydropower capacity remained unchanged at 818 megawatts (MW) last year, ranking at position 12 in Africa from 11 in 2015 and from top 10 the previous years.
• The country has recently switched focus to geothermal energy to cut reliance on weather-dependent hydropower and expensive diesel generators.
• Kenya targets to lower hydropower share to five per cent of the country’s total installed capacity by 2031 from the current share of 35 per cent.

Kenya’s failure to develop more hydropower stations has continued its downward slide on Africa’s list of top hydroelectricity producers as Ethiopia shoots to position one for the first time.

Kenya’s installed hydropower capacity remained unchanged at 818 megawatts (MW) last year, ranking at position 12 in Africa from 11 in 2015 and from top 10 the previous years, according to a new report by International Hydropower Association (IHA).

Kenya has in recent years switched focus to geothermal energy to cut reliance on weather-dependent hydropower and expensive diesel generators.

Hydropower dependence has in the past subjected consumers to heavy electricity bills during droughts when expensive diesel generators are ramped up.

The report says that Kenya targets to lower hydropower share to five per cent of the country’s total installed capacity by 2031 from the current share of 35 per cent.

Neighbouring Ethiopia is the top hydro-power producer in Africa with an installed capacity of 4,054 MW, having overtaken Egypt for the first time last year.

Second is South Africa (3,583 MW), followed by Egypt (2,800 MW), DRC Congo (2,509 MW) while Zambia is fifth.

“Ethiopia has some of the richest water resources in Africa, distributed across eight major basins with an exploitable hydropower potential of 45,000 MW,” the report says.

“Over half of this potential is located in the Abbay and Omo river basins, where the nearly-completed 6,000MW Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and the recently-completed 1,870MW Gibe III project, are located."

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The Gibe III dam, which was built at a cost of $1.8 billion (Sh185 billion), was commissioned last December.

Kenya plans to import up to 400 MW of hydropower from Addis Ababa.

Despite Kenya’s lull, hydropower accounts for the largest share (35.1 per cent) of the country’s total power capacity that stands at 2,325 megawatts.

Expensive thermal power ranks second at 34.5 per cent (803 MW), while geothermal energy is third at 28 per cent (652 MW).

Hydropower is Kenya’s cheapest source at Sh3 per kilowatt hour, geothermal comes at Sh8 per unit while a unit of thermal power goes for over Sh20.

Diesel-generated thermal electricity is only connected to the national grid after supply of cheaper hydro-electric and geothermal electricity has been exhausted, often during peak demand.

In East Africa, Kenya emerged top, followed by Uganda (706 MW) and Tanzania (562 MW).