Page 11 - AfrElec Week 07 2023
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AfrElec TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION AfrElec
Kenya cuts electricity transmission
budget as public debt burden rises
KENYA BUDGETS for several electricity transmission Among the casualties is the Eastern Elec-
lines under construction in Kenya have been tricity Highway Project, also known as Ethi-
slashed as part of austerity measures being opia-Kenya Interconnector, which is meant
implemented by the government, Business Daily to supply cheaper electricity from Ethiopia to
reports. Kenya.
The East African country faces mounting Others include the Kamburu-Embu-Thika
debt-servicing obligations, which has forced the Transmission Line, which generates power from
country to scale down on development financing one of the country’s largest hydro-generating
and increase domestic taxation to raise revenue. dams, and the Gilgil-Thika-Konza Transmission
Kenya’s stock of public debt crossed the Line, which connects wind-generated power
KES9 trillion ($72bn) mark for the first time in from Lake Turkana Wind Power to the industrial
December, pushing the country closer to hitting town of Thika and the upcoming technology city,
the KES10 trillion ($80bn) ceiling set by Parlia- Konza Technopolis.
ment in June 2022. The weakening of the shilling Kenya has an installed electricity capacity
has added pressure to the country’s external debt of 3,322 megawatts (MW) including 200MW
repayments with some 69.3% of foreign debt imported from Ethiopia, according to data
denominated in US dollars. released last year by Kenya Power (KPLC), the
As part of the belt-tightening, cumula- country’s sole power distributor, serving more
tively, transmission projects have been starved than three-quarters of the population.
of nearly $900mn, a move likely to slow the The data also showed that Kenya has an effec-
pace of new electricity connections and access tive generation capacity of 2,967MW, a peak
to cheaper electricity, according to Business demand of 2,149 MW as of mid-December 2022
Daily. and a reserve margin of 4%.
COAL-FIRED THERMAL GENERATION
Zimbabwe to commission 300MW of new
capacity in March, senior official says
ZIMBABWE A new 300MW unit at a coal-fired power plant in power from its neighbours as well as rationing it
western Zimbabwe will start operating in March for up to 18 hours daily.
2023, four months after another of the same The deficit worsened in November 2022
capacity came online, a senior government offi- due to low water levels in Lake Kariba, where
cial has said. the country has a 1,050MW plant. By 7:34pm
Chinese company Sinohydro is building the local time on Friday (February 10), Kariba was
Hwange Thermal Unit 7 and 8 Expansion Pro- generating 252MW while Hwange and Munyati
ject, financed under a loan from the Export-Im- coal-based facilities were producing 147MW
port Bank of China. and 10MW respectively.
Xinhua, China’s official news agency, cited
deputy minister of energy and power develop-
ment Magna Mudyiwa on Thursday (February
9) as saying that the new production would help
ease the energy crisis.
She told The Herald, a state-owned daily
based in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, that Unit 8
will be commissioned in March after the build-
ing of Unit 7 was completed in November 2022.
The southern African country is generating
around 1,000MW out of its 2,100MW capac-
ity, said Mudyiw. Demand, she added, averages
1,700MW.
To cover the shortfall, Zimbabwe imports
Week 07 15•February•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P11
