African Development Bank ADB is all set to offer a KES 5.8 billion loan to the Kenya government to fund the construction of a 450 kilometres, 400 kV double circuit transmission line between Rabai and Isinya that will reduce power shortages in Kenya.
The project will help the evacuation of power produced in the Mombasa area to Nairobi and ultimately into the national grid. The loan covers building of new transmission lines from Isinya till the Embakasi substation in Nairobi. The loan will also cover a portion of the expenditure for erection of shunt reactors at Rabai as well as expansion of a 19 kilometres 220 kV double circuit power line connecting the Rabai and Embakasi substations.
As demand for power in the country rises, the completion of the transmission line is likely to improve the transfer capacity to roughly 330 MW with the probability of an increase of up to 950 MW. To assist constituencies that are not totally covered by the national grid with access to power, the government also intends to build 33 new diesel power plants.
Plans are also in progress to build other electricity plants that are either powered by solar or wind renewable energy. Nearly 24 constituencies have been selected as areas where the stations will be established, as per a draft rural electrification master proposal.
According to the proposal being drafted by MVV Decon, a German consulting firm, the Kenyan government has tendered for 8 of these power plants.
The plan states generation mix of decentralized rural schemes will in the next 5 years supply an additional peak demand of 41 MW including electricity generated by solar and wind energies. The government also proposes to expand a number of power grids in the remaining 177 constituencies, a procedure estimated to cost KES 120 million over the next 5 years. It is likely that when this is executed, nearly 902,000 Kenyans in the rural parts of the country will have access to power.
The master proposal outlines that in the next decade, the administration will offer power access to nearly 1 million homes at a cost of KES 112 billion. In 2009, the administration anticipates to link nearly 65,000 new customers to the national grid, an investment that involves KES 16 billion.
The loan will also cover a portion of the expenditure for erection of shunt reactors at Rabai as well as expansion of a 19 kilometres 220 kV double circuit power line connecting the Rabai and Embakasi substations. As demand for power in the country rises, the completion of the transmission line is likely to improve the transfer capacity to roughly 330 MW with the probability of an increase of up to 950 MW. To assist constituencies that are not totally covered by the national grid with access to power, the government also intends to build 33 new diesel power plants.
Plans are also in progress to build other electricity plants that are either powered by solar or wind renewable energy. Nearly 24 constituencies have been selected as areas where the stations will be established, as per a draft rural electrification master proposal.
