System failure caused power outage in Kenya for 48 hours

Kenya Power Company and Kenya Electricity Transmission Company staff repair one of the four electricity towers that crashed in the Longonot area of Naivasha, cutting off power supply to the national grid on December 22, 2021. Image: GEORGE MURAGE

NAIROBI, Kenya - Kenyans were on Wednesday and Thursday left without electricity for almost 48 hours. The country’s utility provider-Kenya Power blamed their system failure at the Isinya Substation in Kajiado.

A statement shared to newsrooms late Thursday evening reads; "The cause of the system disturbance has been identified and is being addressed by KETRACO engineers, while our technical teams are working on the restoration of power supply to the rest of the country."

By Friday morning only a few parts of the country had the power restored while most parts are still without power and relying on solar and generators to light their houses.

The outages follow widespread blackouts this month in East Africa's largest economy. Earlier this year a high-voltage transmission line connecting the capital to a hydroelectric dam broke, causing a nationwide blackout.

The company buys the bulk of its power from Kenya Electricity Generating Company. Kenya Power also attributed the blackout to a system disturbance.

Late last year parts of the transmission network connecting Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) to Suswa collapsed affecting the evacuation of power from Marsabit.

LTWP is the second largest supplier of electricity to the national grid at peak demand, with the collapse of the transmission towers forcing Kenya Power to resort to costlier thermal power to plug the deficit.

The growing incidences of large-scale blackouts are a pain to businesses such as retailers, manufacturers, hospitals, schools, and other entities who are forced to switch to costly temporary power sources such as generators.

Businesses that cannot afford these alternative sources of power are forced to wait for Kenya Power to restore supply even as they count losses.
Kenya Power has been grappling with an aging electricity transmission network that is prone to breakdowns causing undue outages.

The unreliable power supply coupled with the high cost of electricity has also been pushing away investors at a cost to the local economy.

GAROWE ONLINE