China to Fund Kenyan Hydro Power Plant
Text of report by John Njiraini entitled “Chinese firm wins 4.6bn shillings power bid” published by Kenyan privately-owned daily newspaper The Standard website on 12 September
Power generator KenGen has signed a contract with Sinohydro Corporation of China for construction of the 4.6bn shillings [67.6m dollars] Sangoro hydro power plant in western Kenya.
The plant will inject an additional 20 mW of electricity to the national grid and is expected to take three years to construct. Nippon Koei of Japan is the consultant for the project.
KenGen Managing Director Eddy Njoroge said the plant would be located 5 km downstream of Sondu- Miriu Hydro Power Project.
“Sangoro power plant was identified as one of the priority projects in addressing the growing demand for electricity as it would be interfaced seamlessly with Sondu-Miriu,” he said.
The plant will use the full discharge of 39.9 cubic metres per second of water from Sondu-Miriu dropping from a height of 62.2m.
The two plants would be interconnected to allow power generated at Song’oro to be transported to Sondu-Miriu before being released to the national grid.
Financing of the project is through a loan secured from the Japan Bank for International Corporation amounting to 3.6bn shillings. KenGen is providing the balance of 1bn shillings.
The loan has a grace period of 10 years and a repayment period of 30 years at a 0.75 per cent interest rate.
Njoroge said only two companies – Sinohydro and Farab of Iran – presented bids for the project. Sinohydro won at the technical stage, effectively stopping the opening of the financial bids.
He said Sangoro is part of small power plants KenGen plans to construct to meet growing demand for power. With an installed capacity of 1100MW, the company is unable to meet demand at peak hours without emergency power.
Other projects in the pipeline include Kamburu (21MW), Kiambere (20MW) and Kindaruma (20MW).
Njoroge said plans announced by Prime Minister Raila Odinga to import electricity from Ethiopia were feasible once transmission lines are built at an estimated cost of 5.6bn shillings.
Originally published by The Standard website, Nairobi, in English 12 Sep 08.
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