Govt. renegotiates Sh700m penalty for delayed Lake Turkana Wind Power

The Lake Turkana Wind Power project will start supplying electricity to the national grid beginning May next year the government has said.

Despite the delayed transmission the government will not be billed by the project’s developer as earlier indicated.

Domestic power users and businesses have been spared Sh700 million a month power bill, that would have been occasioned by the delayed transmission of power generated from the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project.

Energy Principal Secretary Joseph Njoroge said on Tuesday that parties had agreed not to bill the government for the delay with plans in place to ensure transmission begins next year.

“By May we expect that the line will be finished and we don’t have to incur that expense,” Mr Njoroge said.

The power evacuation delays have been occasioned by government failure to construct and finish in time a transmission line connecting to the national grid due to land compensation hurdles.

According to the Energy PS, production at the plant had been halted and Kenyans will therefore wait longer before benefiting the cheap power.

“There is no production energy isn’t stored, you have to wait until you are able to use it. It’s a real time product must be generated and used at the same time.

The government in an agreement committed to a Sh700 million monthly penalty should it fail to inject power to the national grid after January 2017 as part of the power purchase agreement with Kenya Power.

Once complete, Lake Turkana Wind Power will inject power to the grid at a tariff rate of €7.52 cents per kilowatt-hour.

The amount is aimed at repaying investors for the expenses incurred on energy projects when electricity is not supplied to the grid for sale to consumers.

Lake Turkana Wind power project remains the region’s biggest wind power project with a 310 megawatt capacity.

The initial 50 megawatts was to be supplied beginning October last year.