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resident Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday finally commissioned two geothermal power plants operated by power producer Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), with a total of 258 megawatts (MW) power capacity aimed at strengthening Kenya’s electricity security.

One of the plants is the 172MW Olkaria V geothermal Power project completed in 2019. This adds to KenGen’s 86 MW Olkaria I Additional Unit (AU) 6 plant, which started injecting power into the national grid in June after successful completion of a reliability test.

Olkaria I Unit 6 plant, whose construction commenced in 2018, pushes the national geothermal power to 796MW, up from 713MW, further bolstering the government’s transition to clean and sustainable energy.

Kenya is on a massive capital-intensive geothermal power production and expansion in Africa as part of KenGen’s revenue diversification strategy amid heighted shift to clean energy. The country’s geothermal potential is estimated at 10,000MW.

“This is indeed a great milestone for not only KenGen but the rest of Kenyans as far as developing clean energy is concerned. Clean and safe energy is increasingly becoming vital in energy development, and it is through this approach that we shall attain universal access to electricity in our nation and meet key energy needs,” Uhuru said during commissioning of the plants.

Robust plans

The additional power is part of the robust plans by the State to ensure the country attains a 100 per cent transition to clean energy by 2030 and is aligned with the Least Cost Power Development Plan (LCPDP) under the Big Four Agenda.

KenGen Managing Director and CEO, Rebecca Miano said the company’s geothermal agenda was to increase production in line with the growing demand for power, which hit a new peak record of 2,051 MW as of June 7.