Kenya adds first 140MW at Olkaria geothermal project

Posted on : Thursday , 14th August 2014

 Local news source informs that Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has added 140MW to the national grid from the 280 MW Olkaria geothermal project. The 140MW is from two units – one of which has already completed reliability test while the other is expected to complete the test by mid August.

At the same time, two more units are expected to commence reliability tests in September and October respectively.It is expected that before the end of the year, the entire 280 megawatts will be fully commissioned.KenGen is currently implementing the ambitious 280 MW geothermal project in Olkaria aimed at scaling up supply and reducing the cost of electricity.

KenGen Managing Director and CEO Eng. Albert Mugo says Kenyans should expect to see the cost of electricity starting to decline in the coming months as geothermal gradually replaces the expensive thermal power. “We have already uploaded 140 MW and the balance will be fully commissioned and connected to the national grid before the end of this year,” said Mr. Mugo

He added that KenGen is also putting up mobile geothermal wellhead power plants which are expected to generate an additional 70MW, bringing to 350MW the total additional output from Olkaria. “This year alone, 25.6 MW generated using this innovative method has been added to the national grid,” said Mr. Mugo. To accelerate its geothermal power production programme, KenGen has also resorted to the mobile wellhead plants which are faster to deploy.