Inside State's plan to power 2.3m additional households by 2027

The government has unveiled an ambitious plan to connect 2.3 million more households to electricity by 2027 as it seeks to increase electrification to 95 per cent.

The elaborate plan will involve both off-grid and national grid solutions, with the Energy Ministry expected to spend Sh64.0 billion to facilitate the new connections.

These efforts will be supported by the installation of stand-alone solar systems, acceleration of electrification in rural areas through public facilities, installation of transformers, reinforcement of the transmission network, and increasing installed power generation capacity by almost 600 megawatts (MW).

Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (Ketraco), Kenya Power, and Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation (Rerec) are the key players in this plan.

These details are contained in the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum 2023-2027 strategic plan unveiled by Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi on Monday.

The plan shows the government targets to increase installed power generation capacity from 3,112MW recorded in 2023 to 3,628MW by 2027. In extension, electricity access will also expand from 75 per cent in 2023 to 95 per cent in 2027.

This means connecting 2.3 million households, which will leave the country with less than a million households to connect, considering that there are about 12.1 million households, according to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).

In the previous plan, 2018-2022, the government targeted connecting five million households but managed to connect 2.43 million, raising the number of households connected to the grid to 9.21 million as of June 2023, up from 6.78 million.

“The growth in connectivity was facilitated by the electrification of all public facilities in the country, the last mile connectivity project, the national street lighting programme and Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA) targeting high population density areas in informal settlements,” the plan states.

In addition to this, some 4,088 public facilities were connected, comprising 3,322 markets, villages, beaches, administration offices, and trading centres.

The government also connected 102 secondary schools, 400 primary schools, 85 dispensaries, 134 boreholes, 37 tea buying centres and eight coffee factories to the grid.

In the new plan, the government targets lighting up 30,000 public facilities for Sh15 billion through Rerec. There are also plans to install 90,000 transformers at a cost of Sh315 billion.

These are 18,000 transformers annually at a cost of Sh63 billion. Rerec has also been tasked with this responsibility.

Kenya Power is tasked with connecting the 2.3 million new customers at Sh64 billion. These are 580,000 customers in the first year, 650,000 in year two, 470,000 in year three, 300,000 in year four and another 300,000 in the last year of the plan.

Both Rerec and Kenya Power have also been tasked with installing 823 standalone solar power systems at Sh16.5 billion. Kenya Power is also expected to retrofit 23 mini-grids over the period at a cost of Sh3.08 billion.

Ketraco is expected to reinforce the transmission network to 100 per cent, which will cost Sh411 million. Ketraco is also expected to construct 36 substations.

This will also see a 2,930km route length of transmission lines constructed, which is equivalent to 4,600km worth of circuit length. This will cost Sh367.9 billion.

In the previous plan, a 1,516km route length (2,937.6km circuit route) and eight high-voltage substations of transmission lines were constructed.

The plan notes that the country’s energy demand is increasing due to population increase, urbanisation, extensive electrification projects and continuous growth in the manufacturing, agricultural and other sectors.

It is the reason in the previous strategic plan, 2018-2022, the government planned to increase the peak demand to 3,348MW.

“During the period, the peak demand increased from 1,812MW in July 2018 to 2,134MW in June 2023,” the ministry says in the plan.

The strategic plan builds on the milestones achieved in the preceding 2018-2022 strategy.

During this period, the ministry notes that a net 961MW of power was installed, increasing installed generation capacity by 40.9 per cent. This is from 2,251MW in 2018 to 3,312MW against a target of 4,821MW, with over 79.4 per cent coming from renewable energy sources.

“The contribution of renewable energy to energy mix at the end of the period (2018-2022) was over 93 per cent. Some 95 geothermal wells were drilled in Olkaria, Menengai and, Baringo-Silali availing 296.7MW,” the report says.

The target is to increase the contribution of renewable energy to 98 per cent by 2027 as stated in the new plan.

The financial requirement for the strategic plan amounts to Sh2.5 trillion. Access to energy and petroleum products and services, where increasing connected households fall, has the most financial requirement, amounting to Sh2.1 trillion.

The plan, however, notes a budget deficit of Sh1.9 trillion.

“The ministry will ensure efficient, effective, and economic utilisation of available resources as per the financial legislation to facilitate the achievement of the set objectives,” says the ministry.