Amu Power is Equal to the Task at Hand

Electricity consumption at the Kenyan Coast is growing with additional demand emanating from the proposed industrial parks, the LAPPSET project, resort cities, iron and steel smelting industry and the standard gauge railway.

Peak demand for electricity in the country increased from 899 MW in the 2004-2005 financial year to 1470 MW in 2013-2014 financial year reaching 1512 MW by December 2014. The number of electricity consumers trebled from 735,144 in the financial year 0f 2004-2005 to 2,757,983 by June 2014.

Peak demand is projected to grow from 1512 MW as at December 2014 to 3400 MW by the year 2016 and to 5,359 by 2018. To meet this demand, an additional 5,000 MW of new generation is to be developed by 2017 to bring total installed capacity to at least 6,600 MW.

Annual energy consumption is projected to increase from 8,841 GWh in 2013-2014 to 32,862 GWh in 2016-2017. It is projected that by 2030, peak demand will be 18,000 MW against an installed capacity of 24,000 MW.

The construction of Amu Power is greatly going to help in making sure that the energy sector in the country is at per with other countries that have already developed. The energy sector in key in the realization of the Vision 2030 and without efforts to stabilizing the sector, then Vision 2030 is prone just to remain as a vision with no realization.

Apart from adding some MW to the national grid, Amu Power to a greater extent is going to benefit the residents of Lamu County in general. For instance, more than 3000 people will be employed to work at the company and the locals of Lamu County will be given the first priority.

Already the locals have started enjoying the fruits because Amu Power has purchased a cols room freezer that will be located in Lamu. The freezers are vital for the thousands of fishermen who have no facilities to store their fish after their catch.

Article by Juma Fred.