Developing Coal energy: Govt calls for expression of interest

Last Updated 12 years ago by Kenya Engineer

 Following the discovery of over 400 metric tonnes of coal in Mui Basin and Kitui, the government via Ministry of Energy has called for an Expression of Interest for the “development of one 900-1000MW coal power plant by private investors.”

“The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum now invites private investors with experience in coal fired power plants to express interest in developing the power plant and sell power to KPLC…”, says the Ministry of Energy in a statement.

In the country’s 5,000MW energy plan for 2016, coal plays a major role with an expected 1,920MW of energy to come from the natural resource. The government seeks to have two new coal power generation plants constructed, one near Mui Basin in Kitui County and another one in Lamu. The plants will each have a production capacity of 900-1000MW.The Lamu plant will however use imported coal for starters.

“The tender for the Lamu coal plant which will initially use imported coal is already underway, with ten firms having been pre-qualified …” points the Ministry of Energy in a statement.

The Kitui power plant is scheduled for completion by December 2016 and will use coal newly discovered in Mui Basin. Feasibility study for a Kitui (Mui)-Nairobi East 400kV transmission line that will see power evacuated from the plant is underway.

The investor for the plant will among other things be required to finance, design, construct, own, maintain and operate the power plant. Power generated from the plant will be sold to Kenya Power under a long term Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) framework.

Kenya’s current power standings: Source, MoE

A third of the country’s generation capacity of 1,664MW is produced by Independent Power Producers (IPPs).Of the 1,663MW, 770MW is from hydro, 214MW from geothermal, 622 from thermal, 26MW is from co-generation while wind adds 5MW to the grid.

The maximum recorded demand stands at about 1,410MW while the actual demand is estimated at 1,700MW, depicting a shortfall of 536MW after providing for a 30 per cent reserve margin.

The demand for power is projected to reach 15,000MW by the year 2030 thus requiring that the current capacity of 1,664MW be raised to 18,000MW in the next 16 years. In a move towards achieving this, the government last year unveiled a plan to have the country’s power generation capacity raised to 5000MW by the year 2016.

The 5,000MW will comprise of 1,050MW from natural gas; 1,646MW from geothermal; 630MW from wind and 1,920MW will come from coal.