EDITORIAL: Be bold and switch off costly thermal power

Kenya has ended a ruinous extended drought with the heaviest downpour seen in recent years. To be sure, the rain is a double-edged sword, bringing with it both good and bad tidings. On the one hand are floods causing misery. On the other is the relief it is offering power consumers who have had to grapple with highly inflated bills since the year began.
Latest reports indicate that the Seven Forks dams in Upper Eastern have filled up, thanks to good precipitation.

For most of last year, domestic and industrial consumers of power have been paying an arm and a leg for the service.

This was largely because Kenya Power #ticker:KPLC had resorted to taking in the expensive thermal power in the absence of cheap hydropower.

Thermal power is notoriously expensive and comes with the fuel cost element as well as forex levy. Its basic cost is also higher than that of wind, geothermal and hydropower.

With the heavy rains, however, the cost of production is expected to fall significantly as the power monopoly switches to hydro and hopefully fully put thermal power to rest.

READ: KenGen raises production of cheaper hydropower as dams fill up

While it is easy to condemn thermal power though — and it has a history of politically linked mega corruption — it definitely has its place as a redundancy.

The lesson going forward for power planners is that we need to plan around more sustainable sources for the economy to take off.

Horrifying enough is the fact that Kenyans were paying the steep price while also paying default cost for not taking the wind power from Turkana Wind Power that should be producing 300 megawatts of cheaper and sustainable electricity.

This is because the contractor for the transmission lines did not meet his contractual obligations.

In the next drought cycle, hopefully this producer and other upcoming ones will spare us thermal power costs.

This can happen only with the Energy Regulatory Commission and the Energy ministry doing an honest job. Let’s not have flimsy excuses for keeping thermal power on the grid.