Kenya Power on Thursday, March 28, announced that Kenya had joined a group of select African countries that have a backup National Control Centre to end perennial blackouts.
In a statement, Kenya Power announced that the system worth Ksh50 million will be located in the Coastal area and will be deployed to regulate power across the country.
On how it will work, Kenya Power revealed that it would be providing an alternative power dispatch point in case of failure of the main national control centre.
“Additionally, the facility will serve as a training centre to boost power system operators' capacity and technical skills,” the power transmission company stated.
The money to set up the system was given out as a grant by GIZ under the Power System Readiness for Integration of Variable Renewable Energies (VRE).
VRE is a project being undertaken by GIZ and is being implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum.
The Centre will be a facility where electricity from various generation sources is distributed to consumers.
Kenya Power explained that the Centre is equipped with technology to ensure that distribution of the electricity is done on merit.
Some of the indicators that will be used to determine where the electricity is dispatched include cost and demand.
No other country in the East Africa Community has a backup national control centre which is considered a best practice and also a requirement of most Grid Codes across the world.
In the continent, countries that have such facility include; South Africa, Algeria, Morocco, Ethiopia, Sudan, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Egypt.
"Our grid is expanding rapidly with increased customer numbers and this calls for the deployment of strategic initiatives that are meant to secure and strengthen the quality of power supply,” Kenya Power CEO Joseph Siror spoke of the need for the backup centre.
Additionally, he stated that the power transmission company would construct new lines to provide alternative supply points to our customers to minimize power outages.
