Kenya Targets 50% Electricity Access by 2020

---

Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In a move to help state-owned Kenya Power (Nairobi) reach its target of increasing electricity access to 50% of Kenyans by 2020, the company has awarded contracts to KEC International (BSE:532714) (Mumbai, India) and Siemens (India) AG (NYSE:SI) (Munich, Germany) for power distribution improvement projects, which will increase connections around the country.

Kenya Power CEO Joseph Njoroge said that the company had received $101 million from the World Bank, out of which $44 million which will be used to improve distribution, quality and reliability of the power supply across Nairobi, the western part of the country, and the Mount Kenya region.

The project will be implemented under the Kenya Electricity Expansion Program, with the improvements reducing system losses and increasing capacity for the connection of new customers.

KEC won contracts to establish substations in satellite areas of Nairobi with a total investment of $23 million. The company also won the contract to design and install various substation transformers in the Rift Valley and western provinces. Siemens will establish a new substation with a total investment of $10.2 million.

A total of $310 million has been mobilized from the World Bank and other lending partners in support of the Energy Sector Recovery Project, with Kenya Power contributing $61 million of its own funding.

Kenya Power has about 1.9 electricity customers and has been adding more than 200,000 customers annually to the total since 2008. The company aims to connect more than 300,000 customers to the national grid in the near future.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.