By Antony Mutunga
Electricity is in high demand, with businesses finally operating at full capacity after the slowdown during the pandemic. The demand hit a new high in January 2023.
According to data from Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), electricity demand peaked during the third week of January at 2132.29 megawatts. Samson Mwathethe, KenGen chairman, believes this is due to the recovery from the pandemic. “We have recorded an increase in the demand for electricity in Kenya, which continues to grow, driven by the high business activity as the country recovers from the effects of Covid-19,” he said.
This comes months after the country set another record demand in July 2022, pointing to the rising demand and need for an increase in Kenya’s electricity generation capacity. If the demand is to remain the same or keeps increasing, outdoing supply, the country will be at risk of power rationing for some customers.
According to the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA), peak demand for the 2021-22 financial year recorded an improvement of 3.2% from 1993.63 megawatts in the 2020-21 fiscal year to 2056.67 megawatts. According to EPRA, peak demand refers to measuring the highest load on the electricity grid, which occurs between 8 pm and 8:30 pm in the coastal region and between 7:30 pm and 8 pm for the rest of the country.
In the 2021-22 financial year, the installed capacity, and the maximum power generation capacity that the power plants can achieve, also increased from 2972 megawatts to 3074.34 megawatts. This was greatly attributed to the increase in geothermal and solar generation by 86 megawatts and 120 megawatts, respectively, which was due to the addition of 40 megawatts from the Cedate Solar power plant, 40 megawatts from the Selenkei Solar power plant, 40 megawatts from Malindi Solar and 86 megawatts from Olkaria 1 unit 6 to the grid.
Geothermal accounted for the largest installed capacity share at 30.87% or 949.13 megawatts, hydro at 837.58 megawatts, and thermal at 646.32 megawatts. With electricity demand increasing, KenGen plans to tap new technologies to boost the output of existing power plants. According to Abraham Serem, KenGen’s acting managing director, the company is set to integrate new technology to increase output.
“This year, we plan to leverage new technologies to rehabilitate our oldest geothermal power plant, whose first unit was commissioned in 1981, the 45 megawatts Olkaria. This project seeks to give it a new lease of life and increase its generation capacity to about 63 megawatts,” he said.
Additionally, the company is set to add 305 megawatts of geothermal power projects consisting of 280 megawatts from geothermal sources in Olkaria and 25 megawatts from the Eburru geothermal field. Also, it looks to up-rate the turbines for Olkaria 1, additional units 4 and 5, and Olkaria IV, increasing their capacity by 40 megawatts.
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