KenGen has announced plans to increase renewable energy deployment in the country, adding 3000 megawatts (MW) from clean energy sources to the grid as it seeks to diversify away from costly thermal sources.
This new operation will be primarily driven by deploying up to 2000MW of baseload power drawn from geothermal and hydro sources to stabilize the country’s energy sources.
KenGen has also put plans in place to optimize existing hydro sources while pushing for developing new hydropower stations and expanding existing ones, particularly in the Tana River basin.
Ag. Managing Director and CEO Abraham Serem stated that the company would seek to reconstruct its existing power plants to make them more efficient for long-term generations.
KenGen will also look to leverage the vast potential of geothermal energy in the Rift Valley region, which is estimated to be 10,000MW of clean and renewable energy.
“So far we have only exploited about 0.9GW of the 10GW geothermal potential and that is why a huge chunk of the additional capacity will be drawn from geothermal. Our focus going forward is to secure the baseload capacity to stabilize Kenya’s energy supply mainly from green renewable energy.” said Serem.
The upcoming 305 MW geothermal projects, 280 MW from Olkaria and 25 MW from the Eburru geothermal power plant, were singled out by KenGen’s Ag. CEO stated that construction would begin immediately after receiving the necessary approvals.
Furthermore, the company intends to use new technology to reconstruct its oldest geothermal power plant, the 45MW Olkaria I, to breathe new life into it and raise its power generation to more than 60MW.
“We will also be rolling out plans to up-rate the turbines for the Olkaria I additional units 4 and 5 and Olkaria IV power plants to increase their output by an additional 40MW,” said Serem.
KenGen has announced plans to rehabilitate its Gogo hydropower plant on the country’s western border, growing its capacity from 2MW to approximately 8MW.
This is expected to aid the western region’s power supply stability.
“Going forward, we will be seeking to enlist new drilling fields for geothermal after successful drilling expeditions in the existing fields. The acquisition of new fields will be one of the major initiatives for us in the new year as we seek to take advantage of the 10GW geothermal potential in the country.” said Serem.
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