KenGen announces plan to fast track renewable energy deployment

This new campaign will be driven largely by deploying up to 2000 MW drawn from geothermal and hydro sources as baseload power to stabilise the country’s energy sources, thereby diversifying away from expensive thermal sources.

At the same time, KenGen, which is listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), has put in place plans to optimise the existing hydro sources, even as it pushes for the development of new hydropower stations, and expansion of existing ones, particularly within the Tana River basin.

Managing Director and CEO, Abraham Serem, said the company had revamped its corporate strategy and rolled out a 10-year strategy that seeks to add 3000 MW within the next 10 years. He further added that the company will be seeking to rehabilitate its existing power plants to make them more efficient for sustainable generation.

“The Board approved a 10-year corporate strategy last year, and we are now ready to roll it out in 2023 having developed a robust implementation plan to lead us in the next frontier of our business growth,” said Serem.

Serem added that KenGen would be looking to tap into the vast potential of geo-thermal energy in the Rift Valley region, which is estimated to be approximately 10 000 MW of clean and renewable energy.

“So far, we have only exploited around 0.9 GW of the 10 GW geothermal potential and that is why a huge chunk of the additional capacity will be drawn from geothermal,” commented Serem. “Our focus going forward is to secure the baseload capacity to stabilise Kenya’s energy supply mainly from green renewable energy.”

The CEO of KenGen singled out the upcoming 305 MW geothermal projects, with 280 MW coming from Olkaria and 25 MW from the Eburru geothermal power plant, for which he said construction would commence immediately after getting the requisite approvals.

In addition, the company plans to leverage on new technology to rehabilitate its oldest geothermal power plant, the 45 MW Olkaria I to give it a new life and increase its generation capacity to more than 60 MW.

“We will also be rolling out plans to up-rate the turbines for the Olkaria I additional units 4 and 5 and Olkaria IV power plants to increase their output by an additional 40MW,” stated Serem, adding that all this was part of the wider plan to stabilise Kenya’s energy supply and catalyse the country’s economic growth.

On the Western side of the country, KenGen has announced plans to rehabilitate its Gogo hydropower plant to increase its capacity by approximately 8 MW from the current 2 MW. This is expected to contribute to the stability of the power supply in the western region.

“Going forward, we will be seeking to enlist new drilling fields for geothermal after successful drilling expeditions in the existing fields,” explained Serem. “The acquisition of new fields will be one of the major initiatives for us in the new year as we seek to take advantage of the 10 GW geothermal potential in the country.”

At the same time, KenGen will continue with its commercial drilling projects in the Horn of Africa, namely Ethiopia and Djibouti, where the company has drilled several geothermal wells, with the latest one being the first of three wells successfully completed in November 2022 at Gale le Koma geothermal site in Djibouti.

“We are happy to see our teams deliver the same level of success in other countries as we do here at home in Olkaria where we have also drilled more than 320 geothermal wells to depths of 3000 m,” continued Serem. “In geothermal drilling, successful drilling of the first well is a major milestone as it gives the engineers and scientists more insights of the terrain to inform the drilling of the successive wells.”

Sere, concluded: “We are also deliberately increasing our efficiencies in power plant Operations and Maintenance by training our staff to upskill and re-tool them to competently manage our existing power plants and also seek to give support to other organisations and countries in the region should the need arise.”

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