The World Bank, Ministry of Energy, Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) and Rural Electricity Authority (REA) have partnered to launch the Kenya off-grid solar access project.
The project, estimated at US$150 Million is set to ensure a total of 14 counties receive modern
energy services through the mini-grid system.
An additional US$5 million was also received from the Carbon Initiative for Development (Ci-Dev) donors to help in making the project a success.
According to the Energy Principal Secretary Engineer Joseph Njoroge, the project will benefit a
total of 690,000 households by 2020.
“The beneficiaries are located in 14 counties deemed marginalized by the Commission of Revenue Allocation and consists primarily of relatively cash-poor, remote and pastoralist communities. Therefore, provision of infrastructure facilities, energy and water will have a profound socio-economic impact on these communities,” said Njoroge.
Kenya currently has over 6.2 million customers connected to electricity.
Njoroge also noted that the government is planning to connect 1.17 million Kenyans with power in the 2017/2018 financial year, about 1.15 million more in the 2018/2019 financial year and 2.2 million other connections in 2019/2020.
Apart from the mini-grids, other components of the project include solar home systems and cooking solutions for households, Standalone solar systems and solar pumping for community facilities and Implementation support and capacity building. Currently, there is 20 government developed mini-grid stations owned by REA and managed by KPLC.
“This project is part of a comprehensive sector engagement in Kenya spanning all areas of sector value chain. Currently, our portfolio is about US$2 billion and about US$400 million in guarantees,” World Bank’s Practice Manager, Global Energy, and Extractives Practice Africa Region Sudeshna Banerjee said.
Overall, Kenya plans to achieve universal access in another four years where 95 percent of its the population will have access to electricity.