The Ministry of Energy on Saturday announced plans to increase the amount of power generated in the country to address the constant power shortages affecting the country.
Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi announced the plans during a tour of the Muhoroni Turbine Gas Power plant in Kisumu County. He noted that the plant had seized operation for more than one year since shutting down in June last year.
According to the CS, the government will embark on the plan by investing additional resources to revive the Muhoroni Gas Turbine Power plant to increase the electricity generated in the form of Megawatts countrywide.
The CS further revealed that once the plans for reviving the station are set, the move will strategically boost the power produced to help counties lying within the Western, Nyanza, and parts of the Rift Valley in addressing the power needs.
A geothermal power plant.
Daily Nation
‘’As you know this area, the entire Southern Nyanza region, and parts of Kericho and Bomet have had serious power shortages for some time now. Our visit here today is to find out what we can do in the shortest time possible to address this problem,” Wandayi stated.
Wandayi highlighted the ongoing efforts to expand transmission infrastructure and build substations within the region to curb persistent power outages.
The power plant, which is strategic, especially for the Western Region, stopped working last year due to technical hitches and since then, the government has not been able to revive it.
The Muhoroni Power Station is the only gas power generating station in the country and will serve to boost the nation’s current power production and will help address the current power shortages that the country has been experiencing in recent months.
Currently, Kenya depends on power generated from Kipevu(thermal), Ngong’(wind), Olkaria (geothermal), Masinga (the 7 folks) and Upper Tana. The other power-generating plants include Sondu hydropower project, Turkwell, Sang’oro, and the Muhoroni gas turbine plant.
“The non-operation of this plant, therefore, has a big impact definitely in the total generation capacity, because 60MW from 249MW, you see the impact is big,” the CS highlighted.
Kenya currently relies on a total of 249 megawatts that it has the capacity to produce from its power-generating infrastructure. However, this has not been sufficient enough to address the ever-increasing power demand that continues to grow.
The grinding to a stop of the Muhoroni plant further denied the country a 60 megawatts capacity leading to a strain on other available resources around the region.
An engineer carries out maintenance on power lines.
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