Kenya Power cut off power to some customers in August due to insufficient power supply, raising fresh concerns about the country’s energy security.
Indonesian Energy Minister Opio Wandaje revealed on Friday that the government is not prepared to meet the country’s growing demand for electricity.
Mr Wanda said Kenya Power had lost six megawatts of demand on August 21, 2024, after peak demand reached a record high of 2,239 megawatts.
Load shedding is the process by which a power distributor cuts off supply to customers during periods of high demand and insufficient supply in an attempt to prevent the grid from collapsing.
“During the recent peak demand of 2,239 MW recorded on August 21, 2024, 6 MW was cut from the grid while the reserve margin was only 9 MW against the system requirement of 310 MW,” the Minister of Electricity said.
Mr Wandaye was speaking hours after a nationwide power outage – the second in six days – disrupted local and commercial activities.
The latest outage was attributed to a fault in the 220kV high voltage transmission line at Suzuwa substation. The line was discharging 288MW of Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP).
This was followed by a trip to the 500 kV direct electricity interconnection line between Ethiopia and Kenya, which was then carrying 200 MW, resulting in a total loss of 488 MW. The total demand on the system at that time was 1,790 MW.
This led to the collapse of the electrical grid, causing power outages across the country. Only parts of western Kenya, which was supplied with electricity via the interconnector to Tororo in Uganda, were spared.
Mr. Wandaye attributed the frequent power outages across the country in recent years to insufficient investment in energy infrastructure over time.
“What we are witnessing today has been accumulating over time and is the result of suboptimal investment in energy infrastructure. The sector is looking at short- and long-term interventions to address this challenge, including engaging private sector capital to complement government efforts,” he added.
Power rationing was widespread in Kenya in the 1990s, forcing then-President Daniel Moi to open up the sector to private investment through independent power producers.
Investment in new power generation capacity by the state-owned electricity company and independent power plants has helped stabilize power supplies and end rationing.
But Kenya has been slow to add new generation capacity in recent years to keep up with rising demand. Moreover, the country’s major recent energy investments have been in renewables such as wind and solar, which are intermittent.
This has reduced the country’s reserve margin to as low as four percent, putting Kenya at risk of electricity rationing, a situation that could worsen if new investments in the sector are not implemented quickly enough.
Moreover, the country’s electricity transmission network is constrained and not well equipped to handle the growing demand for electricity.