NAIROBI, Kenya, March 31-Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has completed the construction of an 83-megawatt additional geothermal plant, setting in motion activities to add it to the national power grid by June 2022.
This milestone follows a successful delivery of full steam to the Olkaria power plant.
KenGen Managing Director and CEO, Rebecca Miano, lauded the milestone as a big step forward in the country’s progress toward 100 per cent utilization of renewable energy by the year 2030.
“The construction of Olkaria I Unit 6 is aligned to the company’s long-term strategy and Kenya’s Least Cost Power Development Plan (LCPDP) focused on sustainable supply of renewable energy in support of the Government’s Big Four Agenda,” said Miano.
The plant which is expected to inject 83.3MW into the national grid is currently undergoing reliability tests to confirm its output.
These tests come nearly nine months since the commencement of works to install the steam turbine at the new power plant.
The turbine, which is the Fuji turbine, is now the largest single unit of turbine ever installed in any of KenGen’s geothermal power stations.
Geothermal accounts for up to 39 per cent of KenGen’s total installed generation capacity and with the additional 83MW, geothermal is expected to grow from the current 713MW to 796MW pushing up the share of KenGen’s geothermal installed capacity to about 42pc.
Construction of Olkaria I, Additional Unit 6 geothermal power plant commenced in December 2018 as Kenya embarked on efforts to generate affordable and clean power to spur economic growth.
