Page 10 - AfrElec Week 32 2021
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Kenya pays $163mn in penalties because of delays at Lake Turkana
GLOBAL
KENYA has had to pay KES18bn ($163mn) in penalties because of delays in connecting the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) to the national grid.
The country’s Auditor General, Nancy Gath- ungu, said in a report that the 381-day delay was caused by problems in building the high voltage power line between Marsabit and Suswa.
President Uhuru Kenyatta opened the wind farm in 2017, but it was not until September 2019 that the transmission line was turned on, meaning that the Kenyan government, and sub- sequently taxpayers and power consumers, had to pay penalties calculated on a per day basis.
The Auditor General said that KES10.3bn ($94mn) had already been paid, while the rest is to be added to rising electricity bills.
“Due to delays in completing the transmis- sion line, energy charge was not evacuated from LTWP plant resulting in accrued penalties to the government referred to as Deemed Gen- erated Electricity (DGE) claims amounting to KES18bn ($163mn) for the period January 27, 2017 to September 10, 2019,” reads the Auditor General’s report.
“The balance (KES9.8bn) is to be recov- ered by LTWP Ltd through a tariff increase by Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) of 0.00845 euros per kWh for the period June 1, 2018 to May 31, 2024 (DEG recovery period) and likely to be borne by the consumers.”
In July 2019, African Development Bank (AfDB) ranked the project as Africa’s largest
wind farm.
LTWP has an installed capacity of 310 MW,
with 365 wind turbines with a capacity of 850kW each.
Two years after construction began, the power plant started feeding electricity to the national electricity grid.
Delays at Lake Turkana come as construc- tion of the 100-MW Kipeto wind farm has been completed, with all 60 turbines at the new site sending power to the national grid.
Located in Kajiado County, Kipeto is Kenya’s second-largest wind power project and has a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with KPLC.
It is part of the US Power Africa initiative, which seeks to add 30,000 MW of clean energy in sub-Saharan Africa. It was developed by BTE Renewables and Kenyan-owned Craftskills.
THe project already has grid connections, with the Kenyan government and KPLC is keen avoid the delays and costs involved with Lake Turkana.
In December 2018, Actis acquired the equity interests of both the International Finance Cor- poration (IFC) and the African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) to become the largest shareholder of the Kipeto wind power project. Within the same period, the project achieved financial closure and GE was con- tracted to supply the 60 wind turbines for the farm. The energy farm will provide power to approximately 250,000 households.
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 31 05•August•2021
