The Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has successfully drilled another set of big geothermal wells, further boosting Kenya’s quest to be self sufficient in electricity. The three wells, located within one pad with a total capacity of 33 megawatts in the geothermal-rich Olkaria area, form one of Africa’s biggest well-pad.
KenGen had mid last year, struck 30mw from a single geothermal well, named OW-921 in the same field. The well was connected to the 140MW Olkaria IV project. The huge steam finds have been made possible by improved technology and expertise. Drilling fewer wells with higher output will see the company make savings running into millions of dollars.
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“The multi-well pad drilling approach reduces drilling costs. We drilled two directional wells and one straight well and when we tested the wells, their output is up to 33 MW,” said Geothermal Development director Eng. Abel Rotich. “It is not every day that we strike 33MW from a single pad. The normal average capacity from one well is 5MW. This means that we needed up to 6 wells to attain similar capacity. We have literally saved half of the drilling costs for 30MW with this single pad.”
The wells will be connected to the proposed 140MW Olkaria V project, which is set to break ground before end of this year. “This development means that we have guaranteed up to 22% of steam towards the financing of the project. We are currently negotiating with the project’s consultants to hasten the progress of tendering for the EPC Contractors while funding is also being discussed with various development partners,” he said.
The new well-pad, which is among the biggest in the country, firmly positions Kenya as a major geothermal power producer globally. KenGen plans to add at least 3,000 megawatts to its power generation fleet by 2018, a good chunk of which will be from renewable sources such as geothermal and wind.
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