Sondu Miriu, Gitaru plants push hydropower supply higher

The Sondu Miriu and Gitaru hydropower plants made a comeback among major hydropower contributors in November, further easing the uptake of expensive thermal power.

Sondu Miriu sold 42.5 million units last month, and Gitaru 80.4 million, compared to dispatches of 20.2 million units and 45.9 million respectively in May.

The improved performance of hydropower stations is linked to the filling up of the dams following heavy rains.

“Total units purchased from hydropower plants with capacity equal to or above 1 megawatt (MW) was 298.804 million kWh (units),” said Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA) Director-General Pavel Omeke in the last week’s Kenya Gazette.

In May, the hydropower plants had supplied 242.245 million kWh, meaning the increase has been largely due to the two plants.

Of the other top hydrop plants, Kiambere sold 75.5 million units, Turkwel 37.9 million units and Kindaruma 19.5 million units last month, compared to 79.6 million, 32.98 million and 10.5 million units respectively in may.

Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter said earlier this month that the dams had hit close to 100 percent capacity in the last week of November.

Whenever hydro generation falls due to drought, households are forced to fork out more in their power bills as the country falls back on thermal power, which is more than twice as expensive.

In May, electricity prices jumped by the biggest margin for consumers of below 200 units a month on reduced use of cheaper hydropower following poor rains.

High electricity prices are mostly linked to fuel cost adjustments.