Energy Cabinet Secretary (CS) Davis Chirchir has attributed Sunday’s countrywide blackout to a transmission overload along the Kisumu-Muhoroni line.
Addressing the media on Monday, Chirchir indicated that the Kisumu-Muhoroni transmission line, designed to carry 80 megawatts, was under pressure from 149 megawatts, resulting in an overload, causing the nationwide power outage.
“It was caused by an overload that was witnessed along the Kisumu -Muhuroni line which only carries 80 mega watts.Yesterday the line was carrying 149 Megawatts,” he said.
He revealed that the government is considering introducing load-shedding on major power lines as a temporary mitigation measure to avoid overloads.
Chirchir observed that the load shedding will make constructing the Narok-Bomet alternative line possible and completing the Sondu-Ndhiwa line to avoid overloads on the major Kisumu-Muhuroni power line.
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“Construction of the Narok-Bomet 132kV and completion of Sondu -Ndhiwa power lines will de-load Kisumu -Muhuroni Chemosit power line to provide stability in South Nyanza and Central Rift regions,” he said.
Further, he said the Sondu-Ndhiwa line will take only six months to be completed, while the Narok-Bomet line will take close to 20 months.
Chirchir noted that the government needs to invest greatly in revamping the electricity transmission system networks to avoid power outages in the future.
“The country has not had investments for the power transmission system networks for over six years.Government waiting for taxes to build the networks is what has caused this problem,” he said.
Additionally, he said that there is an urgent need for the ministry to start load shedding in order to relieve the major lines as a measure to avoid overload and increase capacity.
