Before the end of the year, Kenya will be able to import and export electricity to Tanzania, its neighbour, via a Ksh43 billion electricity transmission line.
According to Energy Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir, Kenya is erecting meters along the 507.5-kilometer transmission line in preparation for its commissioning by December.
The line is crucial to enhancing power supplies between the countries. Its early completion was put in doubt following compensation delays for people affected by the project along the wayleave on the Kenyan side. The Kenyan line is approximately 93 kilometers long and connects Namanga to the Isinya substation.
Along with enabling the two economies to use Ethiopia’s hydropower, the line, with a planned transfer capacity of 2,000 megawatts, will allow the two nations to trade excess electricity.
“The 400 kv (kilovolt) line is finished and we should commission the line before the end of the year and this will allow the two countries to share excess power,” Chirchir said Tuesday.
“Between now and September, we are installing meters since stringing is already over along the Isinya-Namanga section that had been delayed over wayleave compensation.”
Tanzania announced its intentions to export electricity to Kenya for the first time in 2016 and planned to send the first shipments to Nairobi by 2018.
As part of a 25-year agreement that began in November of last year, Ethiopia is currently Kenya’s primary supplier of imported electricity.
In the three months leading up to March, Kenya exported 218.29 million kilowatt hours (kWh), and Uganda exported 69.31 million kWh. Tanzanian units were not imported into Kenya during that time.
The Kenya-Tanzania line will also connect the electrical pools in East and Southern Africa, allowing for the exchange of power between the two areas in an effort to increase supply.
