The Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) plans to spend Sh32.2 billion in building a new geothermal power plant at its fields in Olkaria, Naivasha.
The firm said the plant, which is expected to have a capacity of 80.3 megawatts, is part of its plans to bring onboard an additional 3,000MW of renewable energy to the national electricity grid over the next 10 years.
“KenGen intends to develop Olkaria VII Geothermal Power Plant in the Olkaria field. The estimated equivalent output of the steam available for Olkaria VII is 80.3MWe (megawatts estimate),” said KenGen in an environmental and social impact assessment submitted to the National Environment Management Authority (Nema) for approval.
“The cost for the proposed project is estimated to be $247,511,000 (Sh32.2 billion).”
The firm is the biggest power producer in the country, accounting for two-thirds of Kenya’s installed electricity generating capacity. The firm’s fleet of power plants has a total installed capacity of 1,904MW.
Kenya’s total installed capacity stood at 3,243MW in 2023.
KenGen’s hydro power plants currently have the largest capacity at 825.6MW but this is set to be overtaken by geothermal whose installed capacity will be 799MW once Olkaria VII comes on board.
While hydropower produces the cheapest power, there are limited options for building additional power plants.
“The development of the Olkaria geothermal power plant will play an important role in the stabilisation of the power situation in the country. The project will add 80.3MWe to the national grid.
“This will be a relatively cheap power source since geothermal power is the least cost source of baseload energy for the Kenyan power system,” said KenGen in the document submitted to Nema.
“Although hydropower development is also relatively cheap, there is a scarcity of suitable hydropower sites for exploitation in Kenya.
“Furthermore, hydropower is proving to be very unstable due to climate change and subsequent variability of the hydrological regime in the Tana River catchment.”
It added that failure to implement the Olkaria VII geothermal power project as planned would result in a deficit of 65 to 100MW.
The implication would be continued reliance on costly power sources such as thermal plants, which the government plans to retire by 2035.
