Kenya Power Blackout: Restoration delayed after UETCL “was unavailable at the time.”
By Executive Editor
Kenya Power reports that they are jointly working with Uganda’s inter-connector restored to enhance grid connectivity efforts.
On Friday at about 9 p.m., Kenya suffered a nationwide power outage after losing 270 MW of generation from the Lake Turkana Wind Power Plant.
The loss triggered an imbalance in the power system and tripped all other main generation units and stations, leading to a total outage.
The system demand at the time was 1855. 8 MW.
A loss of approximately 15% of generation was expected to cause a widespread power outage,” Kenya Power’s Saturday statement reads.
“Mobilization for restoration of power supply commenced immediately after the lines carrying the affected generation were isolated.”
According to Kenya Power, electricity from Seven Fork Hydro Power Stations was utilized to kick start the restoration exercise, an option that takes much longer compared to electricity from Uganda (UETCL), which is faster but “was unavailable at the time.”
It is reported that most of the grid was later restored from the Central and Eastern Regions, where the hydro generation is located, and towards Nairobi.
By 11 a.m. on Saturday, most of the transmission grid had been “energized and normal power supply to customers restored as generation came on board.”
By press time, Kenya Power was in the final stages of on-boarding power from Olkaria Complex, where most of the geothermal plants are located, to allow the restoration of power supply to other parts of Nairobi, Coast, Western, Central Rift, North Rift, and South Nyanza “that are still off supply.”
