Kenya misses target to commission over 500km power line to Tanzania

Kenya missed its target of commissioning the $309.26 million electricity transmission line with Tanzania, delaying start of power exchange between the two economies.

The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (Ketraco) revealed that commissioning of the line was extended to next month at the earliest from an earlier target of December last year.

Energy Cabinet Secretary Davies Chirchir had earlier said that the line would be completed and commissioned by December last year, a target that was missed amid delays on the Kenyan side.

The 507.5 kilometre line has an intended transfer capacity of 2,000 megawatts and is set to allow the two countries to sell excess electricity to one another besides tapping hydro-power from neighbouring Ethiopia through a regional power pool.

“Ketraco completed the construction at the end of December 2023. Solving snags and commissioning tests will be completed by the end of April 2024," Ketraco Managing Director John Mativo told this publication.

This comes even as the key project financier, the African Development Bank (AfDB) says that the two countries should speed up talks and ink agreement to pave the way for the start of electricity exchange between the two by April.

“Conclude the negotiations of the requisite agreements within the first quarter of 2024 to pave the way for regional power trade,” AfDB said in the latest review of the project.

Ketraco’s response contradicts Mr Chirchir who had earlier said that the line had been completed by September last year and that it was awaiting testing and commissioning by December 2023. “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,” Mr Chirchir had said in June last year.

Tanzania first disclosed plans to export power to Kenya in 2016 and had targeted to make the first shipments to Nairobi by 2018.

The line has been marred by delays mainly on the Kenyan side, prompting AfDB to raise concerns.

The Kenya-Tanzania line is integral in linking East African and the Southern African electricity pools, enabling sharing of power between the two regions in a bid to boost supply.

Kenya currently has an electricity exchange deal with Uganda, with the country that imports more from each other paying at the end of a defined period.

This is in addition to a power import deal that Kenya signed with Ethiopia, allowing Nairobi to bring in an initial 200 Megawatts of electricity from the Horn of Africa nation in November 2022.

The deal with Ethiopia will last for 25 years and has been key to helping Kenya avoid tapping dirty thermal plants to shore supply at peak demand and also l when local generation of hydro-power dipped significantly due to a biting drought last year.