Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) has refuted claims by Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) that they caused the power outage.
“Our attention is drawn to various social media reports and a statement by Kenya Power in respect of the present power outage which, since Friday 25 August 2023 from 21.45hrs, has affected many parts of the country. Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) wishes to assert that it has not caused the current power outage.” LTWP clarified.
LTWP explained that it was forced to go offline and stop generation following an overvoltage situation in the national grid system.
According to LTWP, overvoltage in the grid causes the wind power plant to automatically switch off to avoid extreme damage. Further revealing that overvoltage caused the countrywide power outage.
“The conclusion that the grid system overvoltage caused this issue is supported by preliminary reports and analysis undertaken by the relevant independent industry stakeholders.” The statement reads in part.
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LTWP Explains What Cause Power Outage
In a statement on August 26, LTWP reported that it was forced to switch off, as it was producing 270MW out of a national total of 1855MW (14.6%).
As a result, the large drop in generation output, following the grid system instability, caused the interruption in power supply.
The power generator stated that the plant has not yet been brought back into operation since LTWP was forced to switch off on Friday evening.
“During this period there have been further interruptions and outages in the national grid system which also remain beyond the scope of LTWP and, in fact, prevent us from bringing the plant back online until these have been resolved.” LTWP wrote.
LTWP noted that it was doing everything possible to support the immediate restoration of power to every consumer in the country.
Kenya Power Blames LTWP on the Power Outage
Kenya Power and Lighting Company (KPLC) in a statement revealed that the country experienced the power outage after they lost 270MW generation from Lake Turkana Wind Power Plant (LTWP).
“The loss triggered an imbalance in the power system and tripped all other main generation units and stations, leading to a total outage on the grid,” reads part of the August 26 statement.
Moreover, while admitting the possibility of a power plant tripping, KPLC said their technical teams ae working round the clock to establish the root cause of the trip which led to the system failure.
“The System Demand at the time was 1855.8 MW and therefore, a loss of approximately 15% of generation was expected to cause a widespread power outage.” KPLC noted.
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KPLC Reveals Efforts to Restore Power Outage
Nevertheless, the power company said they began working to restore power immediately.
KPLC used electricity from Seven Fork Hydro power stations to kick start the restoration exercise, an option they revealed takes much longer compared to electricity import from Uganda (UETCL).
They also revealed that, importing electricity from Uganda would have been much faster but was unavailable at the time.
Thereafter, the power company got hold of the Uganda power to aid in restoring the over 20 hours of power outage I the country.
“We are jointly working on having the Uganda interconnector restored so as to enhance our grid recovery efforts.
Additionally, we are in the final stages of onboarding power from the Olkaria complex where most of the geothermal plants are located to allow the restoration of power supply to parts of Nairobi, Coast, Western, Central Rift, North Rift and South Nyanza that are still off supply.” Stated Kenya Power.
