KENYA: Menengai III Geothermal Power Plant to Be Commissioned In December 2022
Posted on : Monday, 20th June 2022
Renewable energy producer Sosian plans to commission the Menengai III geothermal power plant in December 2022. Located in the Rift Valley in western Kenya, the plant will have a capacity of 35 MWe.
The share of geothermal energy in Kenya’s electricity mix is expected to increase before the end of 2022. Sosian Energy, the developer of the Menengai III geothermal project, plans to commission a steam plant during December 2022. This promise was made by company officials during a recent visit by John Lang’at, the regional director of Kenya’s state-owned Geothermal Development Company, who was accompanied by a team from the japan international cooperation agency.
Sosian is one of 3 companies selected by geothermal development company to exploit geothermal steam in the menengai field in Nakuru County. To date, sosian is the most advanced independent power producer in the construction of its plant ahead of quantum power east Africa and orpower 22. The plant built by sosian energy will have a capacity of 35 MWe.
Like quantum and orpower, Nairobi-based independent power producer will purchase steam for the plant from geothermal development company, which has already drilled several geothermal wells at the project site. Under the existing agreement between the two parties, sosian energy will pay 1.7 billion Kenyan shillings (US$14.5 million) per year for the next 25 years to geothermal development company through sosian menengai geothermal power. The special purpose company will sell the electricity generated by menengai iii to the state-owned Kenya power.
“when electricity is finally generated at menengai, our country will save more than 13 billion Kenyan shillings (more than US$111 million) per year in fuel tax and ultimately reduce the cost of electricity bills,” says john Lang ‘at. Sosian has contracted the Chinese company Kashan renewable energy development to build the plant. The Zhejiang subsidiary Kashan compressor will also maintain the plant for 14 years.
