German Firm sighed to build heavy fuel power plant

Last Updated 14 years ago by Kenya Engineer

MAN Diesel & Turbo has been chosen to build the heavy fuel power plant- Thika Power. MAN Diesel & Turbo, a German firm is a subsidiary firm of Volkswagen AG’s. It will build the Sh12 billion plant following a contract signed with the project owners, Thika Power Limited (TPL), which is a unit of Matelec Group of Lebanon.

The project which received Sh3 billion early this month from the World Bank through its private lending arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC) will see to the setting up of a  new Medium Speed Diesel (MSD) power plant of an estimated  output of about 95 mega watts. The diesel engine will have an output of about 88 MW. The waste heat from the engines will be used to power a MAN MARC2 steam turbine, which will generate a further 6.8 MW of electricity.

The plant will use both diesel engines and steam turbines. A combination of both will improve the efficiency of the plant, which will produce nine per cent more electricity from the same fuel consumption.

Preparatory work has already commenced on the project site with power supplies expected on the national grid next year. TPL will sell all output to the national distributor, Kenya Power increasing the supply of reliable electricity in the country as well as help diversify Kenya’s electricity away from hydro-power.

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