The high voltage (400-kilovolt) electricity transmission line between Kenya and Tanzania is complete and awaits commissioning, Energy and Petroleum CS Davis Chirchir has said. This ends nearly a decade of the project’s implementation, whose Kenyan side faced numerous challenges, including land compensation.
“The infrastructure is fully in place and testing done. We are now looking at when we can commission it,” Chirchir said, during a media briefing at the EAPP Steering Committee and Council of Ministers meeting, in Nairobi.
Countries in the region’s power pool are Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, DR Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Egypt, Somalia, Rwanda and Libya.
The high-voltage line connecting Isinya in Kenya to the border town of Namanga will allow electricity flow from Ethiopia to as far as Zambia, Kenya’s Energy Secretary Davis Chirchir said. The project is part of the Eastern African Power Pool to connect grids and help nations unload excess electricity to others.
This development comes after the the African Development Bank (AfDB)called on Kenya and Tanzania to speed up the signing of three key agreements to pave the way for the exchange of excess electricity between the two countries via a KES 43 billion ($309.26 million) line.
The three are a wheeling agreement between Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) and Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited, a power exchange deal between Kenya Power and Tanesco and a tripartite deal for the maintenance of the interconnected grid.
Wheeling is the transfer of electricity from an electrical grid to an electrical load outside the grid boundaries through the use of existing distribution or transmission networks.
AfDB a major financier of the project, in its latest review said that the three deals are key to rolling out the regional power trade meant to boost electricity supply and cut reliance on the dirty and costly thermal power in the two countries.
“It is of significant importance that the afore-mentioned agreements are concluded as soon as possible to coincide with the completion and commissioning of the cross-border electricity infrastructure to pave the way for regional power trade,” AfDB says in the review.
