KenGen's ambitious 5,500 MW plan to deal with rising demand for electricity

KenGen building in Parklands, Nairobi [File-Standard]

Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has announced plans to pump an extra 5,500 Mega Watts of electricity into the national grid to deal with the rising demand for electricity mainly in its newly gazetted Olkaria green energy park in Naivasha.

With peak demand hitting 2,550mw, the highest in the country’s history, the power generating company said that it had decided to triple electricity production.

This came as the fifth investor in fish feed production committed over Sh2B to the energy park that is located in the geothermal rich area.

According to Kengen MD Engineer Peter Njenga, they had originally targeted increasing electricity production by 1,500mw by 2034.

He however noted that with more investors joining in the green energy park and demand rising across the country, Kengen had decided to triple the production.

“The journey began in 2024 where we embarked on tapping an extra 1,500mw from geothermal into the national grid but we have decided to increase it to 5,500mw to meet the high demand,” he said.

Njenga was addressing the press in Olkaria  Naivasha when Kengen and Maxim Agri Limited signed an agreement to invest in the energy park and launched the company’s new website.

He said that Kengen would establish a one-stop shop where all the licenses and required needs for any investor would be addressed from one point.

“This is the fifth investor who is joining the green energy park where electricity will be provided at lower tariffs and there will be tax reliefs among other incentives,” he said.

He lauded the attainment of the highest power peak demand at 2,550mw noting that the company was up to task in meeting the country’s electricity demand.

Maxim Director Joachim Westerveld said that they would invest USD8m in the first phase of the fish feed producing company and another SUD12m in the next stage.

He said that the company would be producing 65 metric tonnes of fish feed every year making it one of the largest in the region.

“Works on the production company has kicked off and we expect production to start in four months and we are excited by the affordable and reliable power from Kengen,” he said.

Kengen Commercial Manager Engineer Kibet Rono said that they were rooting for geothermal energy as it was clean, readily available and reliable throughout the year.

“As more investors join the green energy park, we want to assure them of uninterrupted and clean power generation from our geothermal wells,” he said.