KenGen gears up to add 20MW to national grid

Kenya Electricity Generation Company (KenGen) will next month start feeding an additional 20 megawatts (MW) produced at its Wind Farm in Ngong to the national electricity grid.

The firm said it is in the final phases of completing installation of the power generating wind turbines at Ngong Hills and once operational, the additional power might bring some reprieve to electricity consumers.

Power costs have been on the rise in the recent months following poor rains over the long rains season of March to May that resulted in a decline in the amount of power produced from Kenya's hydroelectricity dams. This has seen the country increasingly rely on more costly diesel fired thermal sources.

Wind, compared to other renewable power sources - geothermal and hydro - is cheaper. Currently, it generates 5.1MW at the farm that began operations in 2010.

The company has also put up a new substation at the wind farm to evacuate electricity from the turbines to the grid.

"We will commission the substation next week and start testing the turbines and they will be ready for commissioning in August," said Albert Mugo chief executive of KenGen.

The additional electricity generation capacity at Ngong has been put up at a cost of Sh2.7 billion (€32 million). The money was advanced to KenGen by the governments of Belgium and Spain.

"The 20MW has been done as two separate projects where we have installed eight turbines generating 6.8MW at a cost of €12 million that was advanced by the government of Belgium. The second one we have 16 turbines with a generation capacity of 13.4MW at a cost of €20 million that was given by the government of Spain," said Mugo.

The company has leased 137 hectares of land on Ngong Hills from the Kenya Forest Service where the wind farm is located. It has so far utilised 80 hectares but notes that it may not be able to use all of the leased land, mostly because of the terrain.

KenGen has been at odds with members of the local community in implementing the Ngong wind power project and recently they accused the firm of reneging on its obligations to them.

They threatened to disrupt the project should the firm not keep its word to them.