Page 14 - AfrElec Week 10 2022

AfrElec GAS POWER AfrElec

Kenya Power supports

growth of e-mobility

KENYA ELECTRIC (e)-mobility evolution provides building blocks of our turn-around strategy as
Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) we seek to enhance our commercial viability, and
an inorganic opportunity to grow sales as there guarantee shareholder value,” said Oduor in Nai-
is sufficient electricity to support new ecosystem. robi on March 9 during the flag off of first electric
Kenya has installed capacity of 2,991 meg- buses of BasiGo.
awatts (MW) of electricity and off-peak load The Kenyan based startup whose mission to
of 1,200 MW hence there is enough power to create the future of clean, fully electric bus trans-
support entire e-mobility ecosystem, including port in Africa, recently closed $4.3 mn in seed
powering charging stations for domestic and funding round led by Novastar Ventures. Ken-
business use. ya’s transport sector is dominated by fossil fuel
Kenya Power’s Acting Chief Executive Officer engine propelled buses associated with pollution
Rosemary Oduor said the company has estab- of environment.
lished a liaison office to act as one-stop shop to “Notably, e-mobility, which is driving the
support growth of electrified motorization in the green agenda, dovetails with the country’s
country. energy mix which currently comprises over 92%
“Through this office, we will work with other of renewable power, with our goal being to go
stakeholders to support the development of the fully green by 2030,” said Oduor .
e-mobility eco-system, which will include the She said initial computations on size of busi-
identification of sites for potential charging sta- ness opportunity show an average minibus,
tions, as well as requisite geo-mapping software operating within Nairobi, covers about 200 kilo-
to enable users locate the nearest charging sta- metres per day and consumes 120 kilowatt-hour
tion,” she said. (KWh) units at a cost of KES 2,400 ($21.02).
As a consequence, in addition to BasiGo, the One thousand mini buses, operating within
firm is in talks with five other e-mobility players the city, would consume about 120 megawatt
who are either presently operating in the market, hour (MWh) per day .Based on this, Kenya
or planning to make an entry with view working Power has enough electricity to charge 50,000
together to develop industry. buses and 2 mn motorcycles during off-peak
“Kenya Power is constantly on the look-out hours presenting viable business case to promote
for new ways to grow sales, which is one of the e-mobility agenda.™

P14 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 10 10•March•2022