Mombasa refinery completes 9MW plant

By Macharia Kamau

The Kenya Petroleum Refinery (KPRL) expects to start generating electricity  next month, which it will use in its refinery processes and reduce dependency on electricity supplied by Kenya Power.

The Mombasa-based refinery said it is in the final stages of setting up a 9.2 megawatt (MW) power plant at a cost of Sh1.5 billion ($17 million), which was partly funded by debt financing from Barclays Bank of Kenya.

The commissioning of the power plant by mid-next month is expected to stabilise power supply to the refinery that has in the past said lack of stable power supply significantly affects its operations.

There have been instances when fuel shortages in the country have been blamed on power failures that have resulted halting of operations at the refinery.

Due to their nature, equipment at the refinery can take hours, sometimes even days, to bring them back online after shutting down in case of a power blackout.

“Once KPRL starts to generate its own power, the refinery’s up-time or on-stream factor will increase significantly,” said Brij Bansal chief executive KPRL

Low operational costs

“The unplanned shutdowns caused by power trips will be reduced substantially and the consumption of fuel gas and fuel oil in refinery operations reduced, resulting in efficiency improvement for the refinery. Maintenance costs will also be reduced, which will lower the refinery’s operating costs.”

Basal noted that the refinery experiences on average 45 power interruptions per year, ranging from power dips and complete power failures, leading to  lower productivity, higher maintenance costs and potentially unsafe operating conditions. KPRL has already installed a 9.2-megawatt heavy fuel oil generators acquired early this year from Wartsila of Finland.

The plant is part of $1 billion (Sh85 billion) modernisation plan that the refinery has embarked on this year. The modernisation is expected to be completed 2015.

It is currently in the process of changing from a toll to a merchant refinery, where it will be buying crude oil and processing it then selling to oil marketing companies. Bansal said the modernisation will focus on four major areas – product specification, environmental regulation, water supply and electricity generation – as it align itself to take advantage of the recent oil finds in Kenya and Uganda.

He added that there are plans to have a coal fired 50 MW power plant and a desalination plant, which will make the refinery self-sufficient in meeting its power and water requirements. The modernisation  is expected to  increase the refinery’s capacity from the current 1.6 million tonnes of crude per year to four million tonnes.