Last Mile Electricity..1.5M household to be connected by Feb..70% by 2017

[RV Pundit]

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Kind of trans-formative projects that makes me excited.

At least 1.5 million more Kenyans are set to benefit from electricity connection by February next year, when Kenya Power completes a Sh13.5 billion project.

According to the utility's manager John Guda, the project is the first phase of the Last Mile Connectivity (LMC) initiative which is being implemented to the tune of Sh62.5 billion.

Kenya Power, he said, was using 532 existing transformers to connect electricity to various homes.

"At the moment, Kenya Power is undertaking 252 projects across the country with the aim of enabling 70 per cent of Kenyans access electricity by 2017," he said, adding that Kenya Power's goal was to ensure that all Kenyans get access to power by 2020.

[Simanova]

I am happy for that but as I have said before, Kenya needs to show the West the middle finger and go Nuclear. We should defy the so called environmentalist and dam every river within the borders. Communities living close to rivers and causing erosion or reduced water because of cutting vegetation around the valley should be expelled and resettled elsewhere. I would form a Rivers and Lakes Authority to protect the two. Kenya should go on a merciless and unapologetic rampage to get as much electricity as possible.

Otherwise we shall be buying cars from Ethiopia.

[RV Pundit]

Well first need to sort out transmission issues..otherwise the demand from the existing customers is growing in single digit. So we have extra few MWs that don't get used. This last mile is for me the first step --we need to move forward--people are paying 15k over sometime-and connect electricity for free --- and split KPLC into several companies that can compete.

But yeah at of day we have mere 2,500MW of power --with planned 5000mw---so we need to go big in generation --but nuclear is big no. We have to explore coal ..which is one of the cheapest source...and damn the enviromental consequences..those who are rich can switch to renewable energy...but we have to play catch up.Ethiopia are doing amazing things on power. They recently added 1800MW -one of Africa biggest hyrdo--in Gibe III--which basically was 250% increase in their total power--and the g hrand dam will bring in 6000MW. They are leapfrogging us -in power generation --one only hope they are doing the same when it come to transmission.

I am happy for that but as I have said before, Kenya needs to show the West the middle finger and go Nuclear. We should defy the so called environmentalist and dam every river within the borders. Communities living close to rivers and causing erosion or reduced water because of cutting vegetation around the valley should be expelled and resettled elsewhere. I would form a Rivers and Lakes Authority to protect the two. Kenya should go on a merciless and unapologetic rampage to get as much electricity as possible.

Otherwise we shall be buying cars from Ethiopia.

[hk]

The last mile connection is a big deal but transmission is a big headache. I am glad that KPLC is investing in substations to improve on reliability http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Mastermind-wins-Kenya-Power-deal-to-build-substations/-/539550/2634490/-/eapupc/-/index.html . This will encourage setting up of factories in rural areas for those who are in manufacturing. Also I can imagine farmers buying shaft cutters to increase productivity and in some areas putting up cold rooms among other things. The impact of this will be huge once utilisation picks up beyond just lighting homes.

[RV Pundit]

Hk--there also modernization project I saw where they are buying about 50,000 concrete poles and 1,000 transformers--WB funded --i think this maybe the be redundancy thing --to make power blackout a thing of the past---where each substations --get a redundancy line.

But yeah our electrification levels really sucked. 10yrs ago we had about 10% electricity cover. We are now  hovering around 50%.If we move to 75% by next year this will be amazing transformation in one generation.

After that we need to focus on making our power really cheap (via coal or something like that) -- we are still so many times more expensive than Egypt or South Africa ---and that is preventing manufacturing from getting off ground.

The last mile connection is a big deal but transmission is a big headache. I am glad that KPLC is investing in substations to improve on reliability http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Mastermind-wins-Kenya-Power-deal-to-build-substations/-/539550/2634490/-/eapupc/-/index.html . This will encourage setting up of factories in rural areas for those who are in manufacturing. Also I can imagine farmers buying shaft cutters to increase productivity and in some areas putting up cold rooms among other things. The impact of this will be huge once utilisation picks up beyond just lighting homes.

[gout]

Power Line networks as at May 2016