Power station shut down for upgrade

An electricity generating plant has been shut down for automation, a KENGEN official has said.

The plant which was constructed in 1968 produces 7.4 megawatts, with sourced water from Maragua and Mathioya rivers.

KENGEN Public Relations Manager Grace Chepkwony said the exercise is meant to pave way for a modernization that will spend millions of shillings, designed to increase generating capacity to 8.16 megawatts.

“The facility has stopped electricity generation, to pave way for dismantling of the equipment for the modernisation,” said Chepkwony.  

She added that national grid will not be affected by the closure, as there is more production in other plants.

In the past two weeks, water resouivoirs at Mathioya and Maragua were drained.

The upgrading works will take three years, a move that not affect the national grid, according to experts.

The plant is the second power producer in the country, after Ndula power station which was established along Thika River in 1924.

Water running the turbines are sourced from Maragua River and transported through a 6.9 kilometres tunnel.

A senior manager who declined to be named said automation is designed to use less water and produce more power.

Tana power station in Murang’a was decommissioned in 2007, and a new power station built presently generating 19.6 megawatts.

The 95-year-old Ndula was decommissioned in 2010, before converted to national monument in 2017 and handed over to National Museums of Kenya (NMK).  

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