Kenya Power & Lighting Company (KPLC) on Wednesday December 18 issued an update on the widespread power outage that hit the country at night.
In a statement published at 7.35am Kenya Power said it has restored power across the country.
“We are pleased to report that power supply has been restored to all the affected areas following a widespread outage.
We thank our customers for their patience during the restoration exercise,” said KPLC.
At 4.55am, KPLC announced that power supply had been restored to most parts of North Rift, Central Rift, Western Kenya, South Nyanza, and sections of Nairobi and Mount Kenya regions following the outage.
The Company said it was working to restore power in other parts of the country and thanked its customers for their patience.
“Our team is diligently working to restore supply to all the remaining areas. We thank our customers for their patience as we work towards full restoration of normal service,” reads the statement in parts.
This followed a statement issued at 1:28am announcing that the Company is experiencing a widespread power outage.
KPLC stated that the cause of this outage was yet to be determined.
“We are experiencing a widespread power outage affecting most of the country, except parts of Western and North Rift regions,” KPLC said.
KPLC expressed regrets for any inconvenience the outage may have caused and requested its customers to be patient as they work towards restoring normalcy at the earliest opportunity.
“We will provide an update on the progress of the power restoration process in due course,” the Company.
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KPLC September Outage
This follows another massive power outage on September 6, 2024.
The blackout affected most parts of the country except sections of North Rift and Western regions.
Among the areas affected by the outage included Nairobi, Nakuru, Kiambu County and areas within Western Kenya towns of Kakamega and Bungoma.
Also Read: KPLC Monopoly: Two Companies Apply to Generate & Supply Electricity
Wandayi Explains Cause of Blackout
Energy and Petroleum CS Opiyo Wandayi explained that the blackout was caused by a trip in the Loiyangalani transmission line and one on the Ethiopia – Kenya interconnector, which affected the grid.
“Today, Friday 6th September 2024 at 8.56 am, the 220kV High Voltage Loiyangalani transmission line tripped at Suswa substation while evacuating 288MW from Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) plant,” Wandayi said.
“This was followed by a trip on the Ethiopia – Kenya 500kV DC interconnector that was then carrying 200MW, resulting to a total loss of 488MW. The total demand in the system at the time was 1790 MW. The loss of 488MW, accounting for 27.3% of the total generation, resulted in cascade failure and partial collapse of the grid.”
Similarly, a power outage was experienced across the country on August 31, at around 9:00 pm.
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