Garissa county is now set to enjoy uninterrupted power supply following the upgrading of the Garissa Kenya Power substation to a 38 megavolt- ampere (MVA) up from 15 MVA.
The substation, which was first commissioned in May 2016, was originally built with a single 7.5MVA, and additional 7.5MVA later, has been struggling to keep up with the rapid urbanization, and surging local demand causing frequent power outages, and cause locals huge loses on businesses that require refrigeration due to high temperatures in the region.
Worse, was for remote areas like in Dadaab and Balambala sub counties which relied heavily on off grid diesel mini grids for power supply, making the access to electricity both expensive and unreliable.
Speaking after inspecting the progress of the installation of the new 23 MVA transformer today, Energy Principal Secretary Alex Wachira said that the perennial power outages in Garissa and continued suffering for the residents was coming to an end with the new equipment.
Wachira said that the people of Garissa could only use a maximum of 15MVA, thus constraining the power supply, leaving the people with either low voltage or frequent power outages.
“We are here to inspect the progress of the commissioning of an additional 23 MVA transformer. This transformer was promised by the president because of the suffering the people of Garissa have been having. We have only had two transformers of 7.5MVA making a total of 15MVA, meaning the maximum power the people of Garissa would absorb was only 15 mega watts,” Wachira said.
“We have seen serious growth in demand for power in Garissa, and the one 7.5 mega watts transformer was overloaded and had caused a lot of suffering to the people of Garissa. By the end of day tomorrow, we are going to commission a 23MVA transformer, which is three times of what we originally had and because we are retaining one of the 33KV transformer, we are going to have a total of 30.5MVA, which means that Garissa and its environs will be able to absorb power upto 30 mega watts and ensure that Dadaab sub county is finally connected to the grid,” he added.
At the same time, the PS said that the was continually experiencing hikes in power demand, associating the rise to increased economic activities across the country.
“Within this week, we have seen a new country peak of 2,502 megawatts, up from 2444 mega watts. This is a serious demand for power. In the last three years alone, we have seen demand for power increase by over 282 mega watts, that means there is serious transformations and serious demand for power that is going on, which means there is increased economic activity,” he said.
“With the opening up of this transformer now, Garissa has had a constrained power demand. We are now going to see more consumption of power, and we are likely to hit 12 megawatts within a very short period of time and that will be barely half of what this transformer can do,” he added.
Garissa Township MP Dekow Mohamed on his part expressed his gratitude to President William Ruto, for keeping his promise made a few months ago on upgrading the Garissa power substation to meet the increasing demand of the people.
Dekow said that now, the investors who were shying away from the county due to low power supply will now have an opportunity to invest and boost the economic activities of the county, leading to improved livelihoods through creation of jobs.
“We thank President William Ruto, just two months ago, he promised the people of Garissa that the suffering of lack of power within the county would come to an end. As we all know, Garissa has faced serious challenges in power supply despite the fact that we are connected to the national grid. It is because the transformer that we had before,was overloaded because Garissa is one of the most growing towns in the country,” Mohamed said.
“Now the suffering is ending. As from tomorrow evening, we hope that the new equipment will pick up well. For us in Garissa county, we are delighted that the challenges we have had over the years will end. Many of the investors who wanted to come and invest in Garissa county could not do it because of the power supply issues because the demand was more than the supply,” he added.
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