Power firm to adopt IoT in operations

Chief Executive Officer, Olkaria V power plant Naivasha, Rebecca Miano. KenGen is set to incorporate Internet of Things (IoT) in its major geothermal power plants with an aim of improving operations and maintenance. [Photo: Courtesy]

KenGen is set to incorporate Internet of Things (IoT) in its major geothermal power plants with an aim of improving operations and maintenance when done with the study of the technology.

The study is expected to give the power generating company ease of coordinating communication between devices in the power using the internet, through automation.

Chief Executive Officer, Olkaria V power plant Naivasha, Rebecca Miano said that the company was set to start a three-year study on how IoT can be integrated into KenGen.

“We have received some grant through JICA and UNIDO to improve our O&M (operations and maintenance) for geothermal generations using Internet of Things with the aim of reducing our costs,” said Rebecca Miano.

Electric power in Kenya depend mostly on renewable energy like hydropower, imported fossil fuels and geothermal to add-on its electric power growing demands.

Olkaria V power plant is expected to contribute 165.4 MW of power into the country’s grid by 2019 with Miano expressing optimism on the efficiency and fast drilling means to be used by the power plant.

Olkaria V will supply 699 MW of geothermal power to KenGen upon its completion.

The total power to be injected will cost Sh450 billion.