Olkaria's 140MW addition to ease cost of power

KenGen has added 140 megawatts to the national grid from the Olkaria geothermal project and expects another 140MW to be commissioned by end of the year.

This latest development could in the coming months bring down the cost of electricity as the country, cuts reliance on thermal electricity generators that uses costly fossil fuels in favour of the cheaper electricity from geothermal.

The company yesterday said the 140MW is from two units, each with a 70MW capacity, with one already complete, while test runs on the second unit will be done by mid-August.

Albert Mugo, KenGen Chief Executive  also said two more units are expected to commence reliability tests in September and October, noting that the entire 280 megawatts will be fully commissioned by end of this year.

He added that Kenyans should expect to see the cost of electricity starting to decline in the coming months as geothermal gradually replaces the expensive thermal power.

“We have already uploaded 140MW and the balance will be fully commissioned and connected to the national grid before the end of this year,” explained Mugo.

KenGen is currently implementing the ambitious 280MW geothermal project in Olkaria aimed at scaling up supply and reducing the cost of electricity.

He added that KenGen is also putting up a mobile geothermal wellhead power plants, which are expected to generate an additional 70MW, bringing the total to 350MW additional output from Olkaria.
“This year alone, 25.6MW generated using this innovative method has been added to the national grid,” said Mugo.

To accelerate its geothermal power production programme, KenGen has also resorted to the mobile wellhead plants which are faster to deploy.
The firm recently said it would in the August start feeding an additional 20 megawatts (MW) produced at its Wind Farm in Ngong to the grid. The farm situated on Ngong Hills currently generates 5.1 megawatts.

The cost of electricity has risen in the recent months following decline in the amount of power produced at the hydroelectricity dams.

This has seen the country increasingly rely on more costly diesel fired thermal sources.