Kenya firms boost own power plants as national capacity falls

Energy PS Alex Wachira (centre) with KenGen officers and contractors during a tour of Olkaria I power plant in Naivasha, set to add 63MW to the grid after rehabilitation. [Antony Gitonga, Standard]

As Kenya's national power capacity dipped in the year to June 2025, private companies ramped up investment in captive power plants, increasing their combined output by 71.3 megawatts (MW), a 13.4 per cent jump that pushed the total capacity to 603.8MW, up from 532.6MW in 2024, according to a new report.

This is even as Kenya's installed electricity generating capacity by plants that feed to the national grid dropped to 3,192MW in the period to June this year, according to the report by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (Epra). This is in comparison to an installed capacity of 3,199MW in June 2024.