Electrifying Kenya Through Conventional and Renewable Sources

Abstract. Electricity consumption in Kenya is about 160 kWh/capita. The country‘s Vision 2030 wishes to transform it into a middle income economy by the year 2030. This implies that electricity consumption should rise to about 4,345 kWh/capita. Kenya currently generates electricity through hydropower, geothermal power, thermal power and renewable sources, mainly, solar and wind.

The current generation capacity is 2,299MW. The projected Vision 2030 installed capacity is 60,531MW. Vision 2030 generation mix will include geothermal at 26%, nuclear at 19%, coal at 13 %, liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) at 11%, thermal at 9%, wind at 9%, hydropower at 5%, imports at 5 % and solar at 3%. The estimated cost to achieve this is US dollars 26,055,236,042.

The current transmission network lines is 59,459 km. This will increase to 73,355 km. This increases will cost about US dollars 3.8 billion.

The current distribution network is 42,176 km. The figure is expected to be expanded to 45,876.6 km.by 2024. The expansion will cost an estimate of USD 331,269,348. This sector will have to be liberalized to remove the current monopoly by involving the national and county governments as well as the private sector.

The current legislation guiding the sector is the energy Act of 2006, the new Energy Bill of 2015, the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) Policy, The National Energy Policy 2012 and the constitution of Kenya, 2010. However to achieve the vision 2030 electricity generation, transmission and distribution all the legislation guiding energy should be tailored to encourage investors in the sector and reduce system losses.

This paper also reviews the human resource and research needs of the sector.

The paper also reviews the financial challenges of the development of the sector. USD 31,052,165,310 is needed to develop the sector to Vision 2030 standards.