Kenya has announced to have completed the 400 kV power line that was under construction from a 310 MW wind power plant to central Kenya from the north.
Energy Minister Charles Keter confirmed the reports and said that the official commissioning for the power plant and the transmission line is what is currently pending.
Also Read: Construction of a new high voltage power line in Kenya to cost US$ 93m
Replacing diesel generation
According to the Energy Minister, the high-voltage power line is set to carry electricity and supply to the national grid will stabilize by December replacing diesel generation which is critical for the Lake Turkana Wind Power project, to carry electricity from Loiyangalani in the north to Suswa in the centre of Kenya.
“Within the next one month, we will feel the difference once the line has run very well. For me, everything being constant, we are seeing by December we will be comfortable in terms of our generation, and in terms of evacuation (transmission). We will see the cost of power coming down,” he pointed out.
Wind farm not ready for launching
Vestas Wind Systems which is a Danish wind turbine maker supplied the wind farm’s 365 turbines, explained that the wind farm was ready for launch but would be idle until the government installed the transmission line.
Construction of the mega power line commenced in November 2015 and had been due to be completed by December last year, but the timeline once more shifted to September.
Kenya, which has more than 6.5 million customers connected to the power grid, has installed generation capacity of 2 351 MW with peak demand of 1 802 MW.
