Energy CS Chirchir Given 12 Days To Reveal What Caused National Power Outage
Energy Cabinet Secretary David Chirchir has been given a 12-day deadline to identify the individuals and institutions responsible for the 26 August 2023 power disruption.
CS Chirchir, who was questioned by the National Assembly Committee on Energy regarding the cause of the countrywide blackout, suggested lifting the prohibition on the signing of new Power Purchase Agreements to allow his ministry to replace retiring power plants that could cause power outages.
The CS led a committee comprised of all power sector executives from Kenya Power, KETRACO, and EPRA to determine the cause of the 19-hour power outage.
“At 2145 hours, a system disturbance occurred that led to a loss of 270MW generation from the interconnected grid. The loss led to system instability and loss of synchronism between generators occasioning system collapse,” he said.
Kenya Power Managing Director Joseph Siror added, “Normally, we have a link with Uganda that is connected to the national power grid, but when the outage occurred, the link was not in place.”
The committee of the National Assembly demanded the identification of the individuals and government agencies culpable for the nationwide outage.
“That person can only be Kenya Power, KETRACO, or EPRA..we want to know the culprits and we shall get to the bottom of that,” stated committee Chair Vincent Musyoka.
CS Chirchir assured the Parliamentary energy watchdog that he would disclose the identities of the individuals and organizations responsible for the disruption within 12 days.
“Give us some days for the engineers to confirm that it was this signal from this plant that led to the switch off because of an imminent danger,” the CS said.
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Alex Wachira, the principal secretary for energy, refuted the legislators’ claims that the power disruption may have been the result of internal sabotage by demoralized employees.
“We actually found engineers who came from home in home clothes at the national grid, and that tells you that they are not demoralized,” said PS Wachira.
Chirchir added: “We have retired three plants, Kipevu, Muhoroni. We need a backup in the meantime to prevent a similar occurrence.”
The energy committee of the Parliament demanded compensation for traders who suffered losses due to the nationwide outage.
“The fish in the cold room all went out. Who is going to compensate these people who pay a lot of taxpayers’ money?” Embakasi South MP Julius Mawathe posed.
Since January 2022, the country has experienced a total of five nationwide power disruptions as the Ministry of Energy implements the necessary mitigation measures to ensure sufficient power generation.
“We as a regulator have written to the relevant power providers demanding a detailed explanation of what caused the incident,” EPRA MD Daniel Kiptoo said.
Energy CS Chirchir Given 12 Days To Reveal What Caused National Power Outage
