KenGen signs partnership deal with Power Africa

Power producer KenGen has today signed a partnership deal with power Africa, intended to enhance KenGen’s massive projects aimed at delivering 2500MW of power in the next 10years.

The power Africa is a US government initiative by president Barack Obama aimed at improving the access to power in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is the reason why they choose to partner with KenGen because of their massive investments and efforts in new geothermal plants that will generate power in Kenya.

Kenya is ranked as the eighth largest geothermal power producer in the world with 614MW.

Kenya’s geothermal capacity is 514MW accounting over 25 percent of the total installed capacity. KenGen is the leading electric-power generation company in Kenya producing about 80 percent of electricity consumed in the country.

“Indeed, we have registered impressive success in project development, financial structuring, capital rising, and contract management to achieve on-time and on-budget power project execution,” KenGen Managing Director Albert Mugo said during the signing.

Some of the projects to benefit from this deal include the 140MW Olkaria V, 70MW Olkaria 1 unit 6, Olkaria refurbishment and the 100MW Meru wind farm that are due 2018.

The U.S government is however dedicated to help KenGen meet its power development goals by accessing capital to fund their projects as power tariffs expected to go down over the next 10years.

“Power Africa-Kenya, through its ongoing development programs, aims to support KenGen in meeting its development goals, and will further seek to better align its programs across all U.S. Government agencies with KenGen’s priorities,” U.S Ambassador to Kenya Robert Godec said.

Story by Joan Macharia