Just a day after the latest nationwide power outage affected millions of Kenyans, Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi assured Kenyans that the government will ensure that electricity blackouts will always be restored in the shortest time possible.
Speaking in the Yatta constituency during the commissioning and launch of the Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation(REREC) projects, Wanadayi announced that going forward the government will strive to address the outages with speed for efficiency.
The CS also expressed his gratitude to Kenya Power and Lighting Company(KPLC) for acting on time despite the odd hours in which the outage occurred to ensure that the issue was resolved.
Additionally, the CS revealed that the latest power outage was a result of a technical hitch in the Tanzania-Kenya interconnector.
Below is the video:
''As a matter of fact, the frequency of blackouts has gone down, and even in those few instances where there are blackouts, we have taken the shortest time to restore power,'' Wandayi stated.
Wandayi also assured Kenyans that the government is working round the clock to end the constant power outages.
''We as a Ministry, REREC, and the KPLC are up to speed so that Kenyans should be rest assured that there will be no unusual power outages,''
Wandayi's remarks come against the backdrop of the latest power outage which in essence was reminiscent of a similar one witnessed in September this year, during which part of the country was left in darkness for most of the night.
At the time, the CS, who had just assumed office, was under pressure to explain the cause of the situation and outline the efforts the government was taking to address the issue.
In the last outage, he informed Kenyans that the outage was caused by a trip on the Suswa substation powerline, which supports much of the country's supply infrastructure.
"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 488MW, a staggering 27.3 per cent of Kenya’s total electricity generation at the time, plunging much of the country into darkness.
Kenya is currently under financial pressure to restore its ageing electrical infrastructure, with the government seeking to engage financiers among them private partners to help fund the projects.
According to official records, Kenya’s power infrastructure is currently reliant on renewable energy sources, with approximately 80 per cent of electricity generation coming from renewables, including geothermal at 47 per cent, and hydroelectric(HEP) at 30, with wind and solar contributing approximately 13 per cent.
