Kenyans may have to wait longer for cheaper electricity as uncertainty hangs over the ambitious Lake Turkana Wind Power Project expected to inject 310 megawatts of cleaner energy into the national grid.
It was hoped consumers would get a reprieve from next week as the clock ticks towards the deadline for connection to the grid of electricity from the project.
However, the project is held back by a controversy surrounding the completion of a 400KV, 428 kilometre line from its fields at Loyangalani to Suswa for six months now.
An initial deadline for completion of setting up the evacuation lines was set to be on December 31 last year but was pushed forward to June 1 after the government and the project entered a last-minute agreement at the end of last year. Now this deadline is next week on Thursday but up to now it is not yet be completed.
There is a standoff over interpretation of a clause in the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) signed between the government and project owners in August 2014. Both parties are in disagreement on whether the taxpayer is supposed to pay a Sh700 monthly fine to the owners of the project in case power lines are not completed in time. Lake Turkana Wind Power Project is a consortium of international companies comprising KP&P Africa BV and Aldwych International as co-developers, Investment Fund for Developing Countries, Vestas Eastern Africa Limited, Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd, KLP Norfund Investments AS and Sandpiper. Yesterday, the company through its public relations company Redhouse PR, said it had kept its end of the bargain and is ready to inject power into the grid.
New deadline
“We have erected all the 365 turbines and have commissioned all of them to a capacity of 310MW as we speak,” said the company. “What is remaining is the setting up of transmission lines. They (government) had said that by the time we commission the turbines, the lines will be complete but this has not taken place,” said the company.
The company now says the government has given it a new deadline of June 31.
This means for another month, cheap power will be going to waste in the desert while Kenyans continue paying high tariffs for electricity.
Consumers are already supposed to pay Sh4.6 billion to a special fund created to cushion the investors of the project to take care of risks that may accrue with Kenya Power’s payment obligations.
This was formalised through a Gazzette notice issued in November 2013 at the beginning of the project by the Energy Regulatory Commission.
“The security support facility shall be collected and remitted by KPLC into an escrow account established as security for KPLC’s payment obligations to Lake Turkana Wind Power under the power purchase agreement in respect of the 300MW wind that the commission has approved,” said the notice.
At 310 megawatts, the wind power plant will account for 13 per cent of Kenya’s total power capacity of 2,300MW. Geothermal currently contributes (652MW), hydro-power (823MW), Wind (25.5MW) and thermal (716), according to numbers provided to Saturday Standard yesterday by Kenya Power.
Electricity from the wind park will cost Sh8.7 per unit, which in a range similar to the cost of geothermal power but three times cheaper than diesel-generated electricity. Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter could not comment on the matter as he is out of the country
“Sorry I am away in the United Kingdom but we can talk about this on Monday,” he said.
The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited’s (Kentraco) Managing Director Fernandes Baraza did not answer our calls or respond to our messages over the matter and neither did Energy PS Joseph Njoroge. When complete, it is estimated that the Sh75 billion project which is the largest private power generation attempt in Kenya, could slash electricity bills by half.
vachuka@standardmedia.co.ke
