Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, Thursday, commissioned Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited (KenGen)’s 140 MW Olkaria I Unit 4 & 5 Geothermal Power Plant in Naivasha, a town in Nakuru County. The plant is the last phase of the 280MW Olkaria geothermal power project.
Kenyatta gave Kenyans his word that the price of goods will come down, as the cost of power drops. He said the completion of the plant was a big step in his government’s move to scale up power generation by 5,000 megawatts.
Kenya’s poor power supply has been blamed for high cost of living in the country. Its capital city Nairobi was last year regarded as Africa’s most expensive city by the Economist Intelligence Unit. However, this is about to change.
“Take my word that the cost of goods will come down and this will lead to a lower cost of living for all Kenyans,” said Kenyatta at the inauguration.
“We will not achieve the transformation we want if we do not increase the quantity of power, reduce its cost and ensure its regular supply. You cannot fight poverty when you do not have power to run an economy with industries to create jobs and create wealth.”
The president promised to set up a special economic zone close to the geothermal plant. He said special economic zones and Export Processing Zones (EPZs) will benefit from concessionary power rates to catalyse industrial production.
With the new plant, “Kenya is now among global leaders in the investment and scale of development in unlocking the geothermal promise,” said Kenyatta, who wrote on twitter that the country is now the world’s 7th highest producer of Geothermal power.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” lang=”en”><p>Kenya is now the 7th highest producer of Geothermal power as we unveiled the biggest geothermal plant in the world. <a href=”http://t.co/9XupiHDOIE”>pic.twitter.com/9XupiHDOIE</a></p>— Uhuru Kenyatta (@UKenyatta) <a href=”https://twitter.com/UKenyatta/status/568435335782400002″>February 19, 2015</a></blockquote>
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KenGen managing director, Albert Mugo noted that Kenya has immense geothermal production potential. Studies by the East African country’s Ministry of Energy supports his claim. According to the ministry, Kenya has the potential to produce about 10,000 megawatts of geothermal power from the Rift Valley basin where the Olkaria Plant is located.
Mugo had last year stressed the importance of geothermal power to Kenya. According to him, generating power from geothermal steam, could go as low as two cents. This, he said, will make it possible for Kenyans to access cheaper electricity, which will in turn foster economic growth and development.
Following the injection of additional 280 megawatts from the steamto the national grid in 2014, the Olkaria geothermal power has pushed down fuel cost charge in electricity bills to an all-time low of Sh2.51 per kWh in February from a high of Sh7.22 per unit in August last year.
