The cost of electricity in Kenya has really reduced and it is attributed to the additional 140 MW to the national grid.
Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta, during the commissioning of the lasr phase of the 280MW of geothermal power, said that the move was aimed at stabilizing the cost of electricity in East Africa.
“By generating and injecting 280MW, we have driven the electricity cost by the 30 per cent which we had pledged last year. Manufacturers will have access to electric power at rates devoid of transformation costs,” he said. Kenyatta said.
According to Kenyatta, the country is also likely to see an increase in export production and expanded employment opportunities for Kenyans.
Following the additional MW to the power grid, the cost of fuel has fallen by 65 percent to 2.51 Kenyan shillings per kilowatt per hour. With this in hand, Kenya is ready to start exporting electricity to its neighbouring countries.
“Electricity costs have been a huge component of industrial and household expenditure. Economic growth can be arrested by energy costs. My government is committed to reducing the cost of energy and the cost of production in order to accelerate development,” Kenyatta noted.
It looks like not only key a will be enjoying the benefits of electricity as Rwanda will start importing electricity from Kenya. This move will be made possible following Kengen’s effort in increasing its electricity production as well as distribution systems.
The president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame said: “As we produce electricity, as we continue to lower prices of electricity, what is expected is that the prices of other things of essentials are also going to come down.”
With this in progress Kenya, according to the government will be spending about $2 billion to upgrade its power distribution systems. Meanwhile, plans are underway for the power producer to raise Ksh.15 billion through a rights issue to finance expansion of its power generating capacity.
The Kenyan government said that it will spend about 2 billion US dollars in the medium term to upgrade its power distribution systems. The government identified energy as one of the infrastructural enablers of growth and macroeconomic stability, equity among others.
The East African country is looking at increasing its national power output to 5,000MW by 2016 in order to spur industrial growth.