State anticipates low cost electricity in 2014’s third quarter

Last Updated 13 years ago by Kenya Engineer

Kenyans have something to smile about with the cost of electricity set to come down as of July or latest August this year with the completion of the 280 Megawatts (MW) Olkaria I and Olkaria IV plants in Naivasha, Kenya. This was mentioned by the Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry Of Energy, Davis Chirchir when led a high powered government team to the site on Monday.  

In attendance was the Ministry’s Principal Secretary Joseph Njoroge, Kenya Power Generating Company (KenGen) acting Managing Director, Simon Ngure and Kenya Power acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ben Chumo.

“The completion of these two projects will significantly address the issue of power costs in Kenya. This will help to further boost the competitiveness of the Kenyan economy,” said Mr. Chirchir.

Mr. Chirchir said that the first phase of 140mw from Olkaria IV plant was supposed to be complete between January and February 2014.  “We shall be coming back to the site on the 24th of this month to review the progress made by the contractors and we hope they will be working on the final touches,” he said.

Mr. Chirchir said that they expect works on Olkaria I to be ready between July and August 2014 for the second phase of the project. “We have spoken to the contractors and we expect the remaining works to be ready within the set timeline,” he said. 

According to the Cabinet Secretary, the government is keen on lowering the cost of electricity supplied to consumers to as low as KSh6 per kilowatt hour from the current KSh16.

“The cost of producing electricity using geothermal steam can go as low as two US cents making it possible to lower the cost of energy substantially to spur economic growth,” explained Mr. Chirchir.

Olkaria I and IV will produce 140 Megawatts each and are expected to be commissioned in February with plans to build additional plants at Olkaria V, VI and VII sites to generate an additional 350MW of geothermal power. 

In addition, Suswa will produce 600MW and the Baringo-Silale area the Cabinet Secretary (CS) said had the potential of 140MW. On Coal, the CS said that the plant in the Coast was in the last stages noting that once complete it would produce 960MW. He said that the projects would be carried out in phases adding that the cost of power was one of the major challenges facing the country. The Liquefied Gas (LG) plant is also expected to add another 700MW into the national grid. 

Currently, the country is producing about 1700 megawatts, which Mr. Chirchir says is way below what the local economy needs to spur growth.