Board deals Chinese firm blow in Sh1b KenGen tender

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) with Energy CS David Chirchir when he toured Olkaria geothermal fields in Naivasha in May 2023. KenGen is looking for a contractor to connect three make-up wells at the site. [Antony Gitonga, Standard]

Chinese energy firm Sinopec International Petroleum Service has suffered a major blow in its fight for the tender to enhance one of KenGen's power plants at the Olkaria geothermal fields.

This is after the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board (ARB) threw out an application by the Chinese firm that sought to stop KenGen from re-advertising a tender to enhance its Olkaria One Additional Unit (IAU) power plant.

In the tender, which was advertised in March last year, the State-owned power producer is looking for a contractor to connect three make-up wells to the power plant that has an electricity generation capacity of 83 megawatts (MW).