Kenya driving development with GEG geothermal wellhead plants

President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta launching GEG plants at Olkaria, Kenya (source: GEG/ Steve Waithaka Waii)

Alexander Richter 22 May 2017

Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta praises the impact of the geothermal wellhead plants built by British GEG in a ceremony celebrating the 15th plant delivered and built for KenGen at Olkaria, Kenya.

Accompanied by KenGen and GEG senior management, Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Olkaria V geothermal project and visited the OLK-15 wellhead plant, the most recent wellhead plant delivered and built for KenGen by UK-based Green Energy Geothermal (GEG).

During a special ceremony signifying the completion of the 15th geothermal wellhead power plant, President Uhuru Kenyatta unveiled a plaque commemorating the occasion and emphasized the importance of private sector investment for Kenya’s geothermal development. He praised the company for its work and collaboration with Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) in Kenya.

In a speech he also highlighted the importance of wellhead plants in speeding up geothermal power plant development in Kenya. He described GEG’s wellhead plants as “… a unique technology to harness geothermal power, which has reduced the duration between the first drilling of a well and installation of a geothermal plant from five years to two years.”

In an interview with Terje Laugerud, CEO of GEG, following his meeting with President Kenyatta, Laugerud said, “We at GEG were proud to show the President the plant and highlight the support we have provided to KenGen in its ambitious geothermal development activities, and we look forward to continuing our work in Kenya, supplying our geothermal wellhead plants and helping to speed up the development of power to the national grid.”

GEG has designed and delivered 15 wellhead plants to KenGen in the past 4 years that provide a total output capacity of more than 81 MW. This represents some 12% of the entire installed geothermal power generation capacity of Kenya as of 2017. GEG developed mobile and modular substations to help KenGen bring the plants online more quickly. GEG has delivered 6 substations to KenGen, two modular substations and four mobile substations. Two of the mobile substations are portable and are currently idle. GEG’s technology has dramatically reduced the time of plants coming online for KenGen to increase supply more quickly for growing demands in the region.