Kenya Power’s Sh13bn station to cut blackouts

The new Kenya Power sub-station. PHOTO SALATON NJAU | NMG 

By BRIAN NGUGI

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Summary

• President Kenyatta commissioned 220Kv sub-station Wednesday
• The facility will handle the power coming from the Olkaria Geothermal Power Station
• Nairobi and its environs suffer from frequent blackouts due to supply shortfalls and an aging infrastructure.

Electricity distributor Kenya Power is banking on a new Sh13 billion sub-station located in Nairobi to improve energy supply in the capital.

President Uhuru Kenyatta Wednesday commissioned the 220Kv sub-station built using modern gas insulation technology.

The facility will handle the power coming from the Olkaria Geothermal Power Station, creating an alternative power source for the city.

A redundancy system enables the company to transfer customers to a subsidiary network and keep electricity on when there is a failure within the main network.

“The project will greatly improve the quality of power in Nairobi’s city centre, serving Industrial Area, Mombasa Road, Upper Hill, the central business district, Lower Hill and Kilimani,” said Mr Kenyatta when he commissioned the station.

“It therefore creates additional contingency in electricity supply thus enhancing reliability of power in this area,” he said.

Nairobi and its environs suffer from frequent blackouts due to supply shortfalls and an aging infrastructure, forcing most businesses and wealthy customers to have stand-by generators. Kenya Power said yesterday the gas insulated sub-station would provide more efficiency as it is “reliable and requires little maintenance.”

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Mr Kenyatta said the improvement of power supply in the city is aimed at creating “a conducive environment for business and industry so that they can in turn create more jobs for Kenyans.

600 hours of outages

Kenyan homes and industries experience more than 600 hours of outages per annum compared to 120 hours or five days per year in South Africa, according to IEA’s report titled “Africa Energy Outlook 2014”.

As part of his plan to revamp the manufacturing sector, Mr Kenyatta has invested heavily in the energy sector to bring down the cost of power and improve supply.

“This initiative feeds into one of the key pillars of the Big Four agenda, enhancing manufacturing, to create quality jobs for Kenyans,” said the President.

Kenya Power said earlier it would need at least five years to build adequate redundancies at its major load centres in cities such as Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu, which will end outages.

Kenya Power is spending billions of shillings on transmission network upgrades to curb blackouts as the country prepares to add 5,000MW to the existing 2, 298MW of generation capacity.

“Since 2013, over 1400Km of transmission lines have been completed, with another 2300Km in progress.

"Furthermore, a total of 33,900 km of distribution lines and 69 new substations have been completed over the past five years,” said Kenya Power in a statement.