NAIROBI, Kenya: (Xinhua) — The International Finance Corporation (IFC) on Wednesday provided 50 million U.S. dollar loan to help Kenya Power increase in its electricity distribution network across the East African nation.
Kenya Power CEO Joseph Njoroge said the funds will enable the electricity distributor reach over a million new households by 2014 and also implement 42 power projects including construction of substations and distribution lines in the Nairobi metropolitan area.
“The implementation of projects to be funded under this financing arrangement will be completed by 2014. The project will help improve quality of power5 supply and stabilize voltages to cope with additional demand,” Njoroge told journalists in Nairobi.
He said the loan is part of the 200 million dollars that the World Bank’s private lending arm, IFC, will be releasing in 4 tranches to help reduce power outages in Nairobi and its environs.
Kenya Power has been considering a proposal by the China National Machinery Equipment Import and Export Corporation to carry out underground cabling of the entire Nairobi City on engineering, procurement and construct basis.
Upon the completion of the underground cabling system, electricity customers will enjoy improved quality and reliability of power supply owing to reduced transient faults and minimum system disturbances in the three cities.
The underground power network involves the converting of existing over head transmission lines to put them below ground in key urban centers in order to reduce risks of vandalism and system faults.
According to the electricity distribution company 40 percent of all blackouts are caused by vandalisms. Currently the electricity distributor has connected 1.9 million customers to the national grid and has been connecting at least 200,000 customers every year since 2008.
“We invested 360 million dollars in this fiscal year in Kenya and this is out of roughly 4 billion dollars budgeted for Africa which is 9 percent investment in one country out of 52,” IFC Director for East and Southern Africa Jean Prosper told journalists said in Nairobi.
Prosper said the IFC’s increasing access to power is at the heart of the institution’s strategy for infrastructure development in sub-Sahara Africa as it has invested 1 billion dollars in the development of infrastructure in Africa this year.
“IFC seeks to invest in companies such as Kenya Power, which will further develop the power sector in Kenya and the region, reduce damage to the environment and fuel economic growth and development of the East Africa power pool,” Prosper said.
Demand for electricity in Kenya has increased in the past year forcing the Kenya Power to increase investments in new distribution lines and power step up substations.
Kenya Power said it has invested over120 million dollars of internally generated funds to build additional power lines and substations to meet growing demand of power supply since June last year.
The company said it is now recording consistent increase of electricity with peak demand reaching 1,215 megawatts (MW) compared to 1,194 MW at the end of June 2011. (Xinhua)
