Kenya has contracted a consortium of Chinese companies to complete the construction of a major transmission line that will evacuate electricity from the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) project, which stalled in 2016, when the previous contractor, Italian company Isolux Ingeneria, went bankrupt.
The consortium, comprising NARI Group Corporation and Power China Guizhou Engineering Company, will be responsible for completing the $150-million Loiyangalani–Suswa power line. The contract was signed with State-owned Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco).
The 428 km 400 kV line is about 70% complete and the Chinese companies are required to complete it by August.
“We expect the line to be ready by August so that the LTWP project can be connected to the national grid,” says Ketraco MD Fernandes Barasa.
The wind farm is expected to provide reliable, low-cost energy for Kenyans over a 20-year period, in accordance with the power purchase agreement signed with electricity utility Kenya Power.
Isolux was awarded the contract in 2011 and was supposed to complete the project in 23 months.
Kenya, which is highly dependent on hydroelectricity, is desperate to tap electricity from Africa’s largest wind farm to arrest rising electricity costs caused by a severe drought that has led to a drastic decline in water levels at hydropower schemes, forcing the country to resort to expensive thermal generation.
The cost of electricity has increased by 22% over the past 12 months and could increase further this year.