Menengai geothermal plants deliver 70MW to Kenya's grid

Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) geothermal power plants. [Courtesy]

Two geothermal power plants at the Menengai geothermal fields, which have been under development for nearly a decade, have finally been completed and begun supplying electricity to the national grid.

The plants, developed by Globeleq and Orpower 22, have a combined generation capacity of 70 megawatts (MW), lifting Kenya’s installed geothermal capacity to more than 1,000 megawatts.

The new capacity will play a bigger role in reducing instances of power rationing in the country as the grid battles rising electricity demand that has not been matched by an increase in power generation. Kenya also averted power rationing by doubling imports from Ethiopia.

Kenya Power said it onboarded, over the year to June 2026, “71.5 MW of new capacity: 35MW from Globeleq geothermal, 35 MW from OrPower 22 geothermal and 1.5MW of solar from Marco Borero.”

“A further 60.5MW from the KenGen Olkaria I rehabilitation project was under commissioning.”

Kenya Power, in the annual report, said it paid Orpower Sh757.8 million for the 116 million gigawatt-hours (GWh) it supplied to the grid, while it paid Globeleq Sh140.86 million for its 20 million GWh. The amount of power fed to the grid by the two companies could be an indicator that they started operations late in the financial year. They are in comparison with Sosian Energy’s 311GWh, whose power plant is also located in Menengai and has a similar capacity of 35MW.

The onboarding of the two power plants brings the combined power generating capacity from Menengai to 105MW. Sosian Energy connected to the grid in early 2023.

The geothermal fields at the Menengai Caldera were developed by the state-owned Geothermal Development Company, which undertakes the capital-intensive work of exploration for geothermal steam and then developing viable fields by drilling production wells and building steam gathering systems. It then selected the three firms through a competitive process to put up power plants

The development has, however, been characterised by major delays, with the companies missing an initial completion deadline of December 2016.

The three independent power producers experienced difficulties in accessing finance, significantly delaying development. Two of the firms were unable to move forward and only started development after acquisitions and capital injections by the new owners. Quantum Power East Africa was acquired by Globeleq and Orpower 22 – initially owned by US-based Symbion Power – was taken over by China’s Kaishan Group.

The operationalisation of the two power plants partly helped Kenya avoid major power rationing as demand continued to outpace supply. Peak demand, Kenya Power said, increased by 8.6 per cent, from 2,316 MW in June 2025 to 2,514 MW.

“This tightened the system's reserve margin to approximately negative 1.5 per cent. The margin is below the level required to absorb an unexpected plant outage, hydrology shock or demand surge,” said Kenya Power, attributing the dwindling reserve to the moratorium on signing new Power Purchase Agreements in 2018 as Kenya sought to address the high cost of power that has been blamed on PPAs skewed in favour of power producers. The freeze was lifted in December 2024.

The company also said imports from Ethiopia doubled, further helping to stabilise the grid.

“Imports from Ethiopia increased by 200 MW to 400 MW,” said Kenya Power.

The company said it expects to onboard more than 2,000MW of new electricity generation capacity in the medium term.

“Over the medium to long term, proposed additions by the government include the planned 1,000 MW of nuclear power to be constructed in Siaya, 400 MW of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) generation and 700 MW hydropower from High Grand Falls along the Tana River. Progress of these additional generation plants will depend on timely approvals, financing and project delivery,” said the firm in its annual report.

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