Kenya on Tuesday officially inked the contract with Ethiopia for the purchase of cheap hydroelectric power even as Nairobi nears completing the transmission line to evacuate power from its northern neighbor.
The two countries have been hammering out details of the power purchase agreement (PPA) over the past year with its official signing this week bringing fresh hope over lower cost of electricity once the line is completed and energized.
Kenya is expected to purchase 200 megawatts (MW) from Ethiopia in the first phase of the multi-phased project before it is scaled up to 400MW in the next phase.
A senior source at Kenya Power yesterday told Nation that the PPA was signed by the company’s acting Chief Executive Geoffrey Muli and his Ethiopian counterpart from the Ethiopian Electric power (EEP) in Naivasha in the presence of senior officials from both countries.
President Uhuru Kenyatta was making a tour of Nakuru County where he commissioned five projects including the 172MW Olkaria 5 and 86 megawatts Olkaria 1 Additional Unit (AU) 6 geothermal power plants in Naivasha.
The other projects he commissioned during his visit includes the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) - Metre Gauge Rail (MGR) passenger rail link at the Mai-Mahiu Station that links the SGR and the MGR, the Naivasha Inland Container Depot (ICD) and the Suswa water project that will serve the Naivasha industrial park.
“The energy we are generating is not only to power this industrial park but it is also for powering other industries across our nation, our cities, our towns and our homes,” President Kenyatta said.
The Head of State was accompanied by Ethiopian Energy Minister Dr Eyob Tolina, Energy Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma, Transport CS James Macharia, and Turkish Industry Holdings President Mehmet Coşkun.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) funded Ethiopia-Kenya Electricity Highway Project involves the construction of an electricity highway between the two countries made up of about 1,068 kilometres of transmission line.
About 631km of transmission line is being built by the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) that will allow for transmission of power of up to 2,000MW between Kenya and Ethiopia in either direction.
The state-owned company this week told Nation it would complete construction of the line “within the next few months”.
The project is part of the Eastern African Power Pool (EAPP) Master Plan that aims to interconnect the power grids of five countries in the region namely Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.
The deal is set to increase Kenya’s power imports, which cushion consumers from supply hitches in case of local generation challenges.
Kenya also imports electricity from Uganda, which has for decades served the Western region that is traditionally served by the small capacity hydros and co-generation stations such as the Muhoroni Gas Turbine (GT) located in the region.
Kenya imported 34.14 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity from Uganda in February – the highest amount imported from that country on record – up from imports of 30.34 million units in January amid low local power generation from geothermal and hydro dams.
On Tuesday evening, the Muhoroni GT power station, was hit by technical faults that tripped the electricity grid, temporarily affecting power supply to parts of Nyanza, Western and the Rift Valley.
