PROSPECTS OF ELECTRIFYING KENYA THROUGH A MIX OF SOURCES

Abstract

Electricity consumption in Kenya is about 178 kWh/capita. The country’s Vision 2030 wishes to transform it intoa middle-income economy by the year 2030. This implies that electricity consumption should rise to about 4,345kWh/capita. Kenya currently generates electricity through hydropower, geothermal power, thermal power andrenewable sources, mainly, solar and wind.The current generation capacity is 2,651MW. The projected Vision 2030 installed capacity is 64,700MW. Vision 2030 generation mix will include geothermal at 26%, nuclear at 19%, coal at 13 %, liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)at 11%, thermal at 9%, wind at 9%, hydropower at 5%, imports at 5 % and solar at 3%. The estimated cost toachieve this is US dollars 26,055,236,042.The current transmission network lines are 55,485 kilometres. This will increase to 73,355 km. This increase will cost about US dollars 3.8 billion. The current distribution network is 42,176 km. The figure is expected to be expanded to 45,876.6 km.by 2024. The expansion will cost an estimate of USD 331,269,348. This sector will have to be liberalized to remove the current monopoly by involving the national and county governments as well as the private sector. The current legislation guiding the sector is the energy Act of 2006, the new Energy Bill of 2015, the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) Policy, The National Energy Policy 2012 and the constitution of Kenya, 2010. However, to achieve the vision 2030 electricity generation, transmission and distribution all the legislation guiding energy should be tailored to encourage investors in the sector and reduce system losses.This paper also reviews the human resource and research needs of the sector. The paper also reviews the financial challenges of the development of the energy sector. USD 31,052,165,310 is needed to develop the sector to Vision 2030 standards