Lewis Njoka @LewisNjoka
Spotlight now shifts to the energy regulator to see if it will cut electricity prices following the completion of Lake Turkana Wind Power Project which President Uhuru Kenyatta is set to commission today.
The project’s Executive Director, Rizwan Faza, said he expected the cost of power to go down by between seven and 10 per cent once the wind power is connected to the national grid.
Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (Ketraco) Managing Director, Fernandez Barasa shared the same sentiments, saying that adding renewable energy, wind energy to the country’s energy mix would lower the cost of power.
Tariff structures
Under the Energy Act, 2019, Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) is mandated to set, review and adjust electric power tariffs and tariff structures and investigate tariff charges, whether or not a specific application has been made for a tariff adjustment.
The wind power plant in Marsabit county is expected to inject an extra 310 megawatts into the national grid, about 15 percent of Kenya’s energy needs.
Kenya Power will buy the energy produced by the Turkana Wind project at a fixed price for the next 20 years as per the Power Purchase Agreement signed with Lake Turkana Wind Power Ltd.
Baraza who spoke at a Nairobi hotel said the power plant will sell electricity to the government at Sh8 per kilowatt hour . The commissioning of the power plant comes at a time when African Union High Representative for Infrastructure Development, Raila Odinga is warning against plans not licence new alternative power producers, due to low demand for the commodity.
He said EPRA, formerly Energy Regulatory Commission, should not peg electricity generation to consumer demand because the move would lock out investors seeking to set base in the country.
Raila said energy drives the economy and that the amount of energy consumed in the country determines the level of development of a country. “Kenya needs an output of five per cent every year to meet the required energy consumption,” he added.
Raila made the remarks yesterday at Strathmore University, where he presided the launch of the Powering Jobs report titled “Powering Jobs Census 2019: The Energy Access Workforce.” The report shows that Kenya distributed renewable energy sector provides 10,000 direct formal jobs .
The Sh80 billion Lake Turkana project is the largest wind farm in Africa and is the largest private investment in the country’s history.
It sits on 4,000 acres of communal land and has 365 wind turbines capable of generating 850 kilowatts each. Also to be commissioned today by the President is the Loiyangalani-Suswa transmission line which runs from Loiyangalani in Marsabit to Suswa, Kajiado.
The 438-kilometre transmission line will evacuate power from Lake Turkana Wind Power Plant, injecting it into the national power grid, hence, widening the country’s energy mix.
It will also be used to evacuate power from solar, geothermal and wind farms to be constructed in Rift Valley and Northern Kenya in future.
In a statement, Ketraco said the project, which has substations at Loiyangalani and Suswa, is expected to save the country Sh1 billion annually spent on importing fuel to generate electricity.
Improved quality
Other benefits from the Sh28 billion power line project will include increased power supply, improved quality and reliability of power supply, and improved communication, thanks to a fibre optic cable that will run along the power line.
Barasa said Ketraco faced several challenges constructing the 400 kilovolt double circuit line including rough terrain, unfavourable weather, poor road network, insecurity and vandalism.
