KenGen to install 3000 MW of additional renewable generation capacity

• 1 year, 3 months ago (2023-01-09)
• David Flin

Africa 303 Hydropower 111 Renewables 751

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Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has announced plans to help meet Kenya’s target of generating electricity from 100 per cent renewable sources by 2030. Abraham Serem, Acting Manager and CEO of KenGen, said that the company had revamped its corporate strategy and rolled out a 10-year strategy to add 3000 MW of renewables over the next ten years. This will see Kenya’s installed generating capacity doubling to 6000 MW. He added that KenGen will be seeking to rehabilitate its existing power plants to make them more efficient for sustainable generation.

Serem added that KenGen would seek to tap into the vast potential of geothermal energy in the Rift Valley region, estimated at 10 GW of renewable energy. He said: “So far, we have only exploited about 0.9 GW of the 10 GW geothermal potential and that is why a huge chunk of the additional capacity will be drawn from geothermal. Our focus going forward is to secure the baseload capacity to stabilise Kenya’s energy supply, mainly from green renewable energy.”

KenGen’s new plan will be driven largely by deploying up to 2000 MW, drawn from geothermal and hydro sources, as baseload power to stabilise the country’s energy sources, diversifying away from expensive thermal sources. KenGen also plans to optimise existing hydro sources as well as developing new hydropower stations.

Serem singled out the upcoming geothermal projects at Olkaria (280 MW) and Eburru (25 MW) which he said would start construction as soon as the requisite approvals were granted.