Kenya and Tanzania are in the final stages of a power agreement that will see the latter export its electricity bought from Ethiopia through the country's power lines amid controversies.
According to reports from Bloomberg, the deal will see Tanzania use Kenya’s electricity transmission infrastructure to import an estimated amount of about 100 megawatts from Ethiopia. In Kenya, a typical household uses around 100-200 kWh per month. Therefore, 100 megawatts could power around 350,000 households for an entire month.
This is even as there remain a lot of controversies and debates about the ability of Kenya to complement the deal, as Kenya itself faces key challenges with its transmission lines. This is despite the government insisting that gaining power lines is to blame for the numerous blackouts that have hit the county this year.
The challenges forced the government to turn to the troubled Adani Group conglomerate to discuss a potential deal that could see the group invest Ksh96 billion to upgrade the powerlines to take over Kenya’s electricity transmission.
The deal to transmit the electricity through Kenya will use the country's high-voltage lines.
Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) Chief Executive Officer John Mativo says the deal has already been signed and is in the final stages awaiting approval.
Mativo told Bloomberg that the power will be generated from Sodo in Ethiopia and be transmitted to Tanzania via Suswa, raising even more questions about the viability of the deal.
Surprisingly, Kenyan authorities have in the past blamed key electricity blackouts on the old infrastructure around power stations like Suswa.
Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi blamed a recent blackout that was witnessed in Kenya on September 6 on key technical failures on the Suswa transmission lines that get power from Ethiopia.
"The tripping of the Suswa line was followed by the failure of the Ethiopia-Kenya 500kV interconnector, which was carrying 200MW at the time," stated Wandayi. This double blow led to the loss of 488 megawatts, a staggering 27.3 per cent of Kenya’s total electricity generation at the time, throwing much of the country into darkness.
However, Kenya already has a running agreement with the Ethiopian government on a power importation deal that has seen 200 megawatts of electricity imported from the latter.
Details about the financial cost of the deal however remain scanty despite Kenya’s Energy Principal Secretary, Alex Wachira, confirming negotiations about the deal on October 12, this year.
''The dream of an interconnected Eastern Africa region is finally being realized following the conclusion of negotiations and signing of an Energy exchange agreement between Kenya's electricity utility company, Kenya, and Tanzania today in Dar es Salaam,’’ Wachira shared.
