Government plans to shut down two diesel plants, Kipevu I and III in Mombasa in efforts to evacuate cheap geothermal power from Olkaria. This will see the state power generator, KenGen lose revenues from the closures.
The government has been pushing for a shift to other alternative sources of electricity generation such as geothermal, wind and solar to tame the high cost of power.
Recently, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics released its latest economic data indicating that the country is generating up to 274 million Kilowatts per hour (kWh) of electricity from thermal sources every month, which is three times more than it did over a year ago.
Generation of electricity from thermal sources had dropped to a low of 92 million kWh in May 2016 but has been rising over the months as hydro generation experiences challenges.In January, thermal power generation stood at 197 million kWh and rose to peak at 274 million kWh in June.
The rise pushes thermal power in the East African nation’s energy mix to 32 percent of the electricity consumed, against hydropower 21 percent.
In June, Kenya generated from hydro sources 183 million KWh of electricity as production for the first time in many years fell below 200 million kWh.
Hydro power production has been on a steady decline in December 2016 as it closed at 299 million kWh and January 2017 at 252 million kWh.
