Kenya adds two new geothermal power plants of total 140 MW to the grid
KenGen management visiting GEG's plants, Olkaria, Kenya (source: Lydur Skulason)
Francisco Rojas
14 Oct 2014
KenGen says it has commissioned 140 megawatts of geothermal energy to be fed into the national power grid and it is also planning an ambitious project to build industrial parks by the wellheads to foster new enterprise creation.
Excellent news from Kenya, where KenGen says it has commissioned 140 megawatts of geothermal energy to be fed into the national power grid. This is part of a 280MW project in four power plants that the company has been putting up and will go a long way to boost the country’s installed electricity capacity to over 2,000MW.
The company will not stop there. Because the wells it sunk yielded much more power than initially expected, it will put up an additional 70MW, bringing the total to 350MW of geothermal to be newly added to the grid.
The net effect of this is that the cost of electricity in the country will gradually reduce as geothermal increasingly becomes the source of electricity consumed, which is considerably cheaper than diesel power plants.
However, it is an Expression of Interest notice in the dailies on Thursday that should generate even more excitement. In the EoI, KenGen is seeking to set up industrial parks in Naivasha near its power plants where industries will be fed directly from OlKaria at considerably cheaper prices.
In the same newspiece, it is stated that companies that operated in the country such as the chocolate manufacturer Cadbury or the battery producer Eveready, have decided to leave the country due to excessive costs particularly in electricity.
KenGen’s plant to create industrial parks that feed directly from the geothermal well might be what can bring more industry back and also to foster the creation of new enterprises.
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Source: The Star via All Africa
