Why there was a power blackout today- Wandayi

Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi has attributed today’s power blackout to inadequate investment in the country’s energy infrastructure.

In a statement, Wandayi explained that the outage, which affected multiple regions earlier today, was caused by a malfunction on the Loiyangalani transmission line at the Suswa substation.

"At 8:56 a.m. today, Friday, September 6, the 220kV Loiyangalani High Voltage transmission line tripped at the Suswa substation while evacuating 288MW from the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) plant," Wandayi said.

"This was followed by a trip on the Ethiopia–Kenya 500kV DC interconnector, which was carrying 200MW at the time. This combined loss of 488MW, representing 27.3% of the country’s total generation, triggered a cascading failure and a partial collapse of the national grid."

Wandayi pointed out that today's outage is symptomatic of deeper issues rooted in insufficient investment in the energy sector over the years.

This blackout comes just days after a similar incident occurred in the same region.

The Cabinet Secretary has assured the public that the Ministry is addressing the issue, including efforts to repair the Loiyangalani-Suswa transmission line to enable double-circuit operation.