Unit 6 of its Olkaria I geothermal power plant is set to be commissioned before end of this year. This is according to Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen)’s CEO Rebecca Miano, KenGen’s who affirmed that the project’s contractors Marubeni Corporation and Fuji Electric are on track to meet its schedule.
The geothermal power project is located in Nakuru County at the eastern end of the Rift Valley. The Olkaria I geothermal power plant has five units with a capacity of 185 MWe. The Olkaria geothermal field is located at an elevation of approximately 2,000m within the central Kenya segment of the East African Great Rift Valley, which possesses good deal of recoverable geothermal resources due to the intrusion of hot magma bodies up to less than 6km-deep beneath the surface.
Project’s contract
With the ongoing rehabilitation of turbines 1, 2 and 3, the plant will have a capacity of 190.7 MWe. The sixth unit of Olkaria I will add 83 MWe, bringing the capacity of the plant to 273.7 MWe. The project is being financed by an ODA loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), with additional loans from the European Investment Bank. The main components required for this project, including steam turbines and generators, are being provided by the Japanese firm, Fuji Electric.
KenGen had also chosen Mitsubishi Corporation who worked with its compatriot Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems to supply some of the equipment and offer transportation of the equipment from the port of Mombasa in the east of the country to the site where the plant is located in the west. Construction of the geothermal power plant began in 2017 and the energy produced will be sold to Kenya Power (KPLC), the company that provides the electricity utility
