Kenya Power to replace fuel with gas in its transformers to curb vandalism
Kenya’s power utility company, Kenya Power is set to replace oil in its transformers with gas in a bid to tame growing vandalism for fuel that has led to incessant power outages.
It has entered into an agreement with a subsidiary of Japan’s Toshiba Corporation to install several gas-insulated transformers on a pilot basis before going full scale.
The transformers will use carbon dioxide as opposed to oil. Vandals eye the toxic oil that is drawn from transformers, which is reportedly used for frying food in roadside stalls.
The deal will also see the India-based subsidiary, Toshiba Transmission & Distribution Systems (TTDI), install more efficient units dubbed amorphous distribution transformers, to reduce electricity losses due to equipment inefficiencies.
“These efforts aim to strengthen power supply and reduce losses as the network grows in tandem with increased [numbers of] customers,” Kenya Power managing director Ben Chumo said during the signing ceremony in Nairobi.
Kenya Power is losing $172 million annually through electricity thefts and leakages from an ageing transmission network, translating to lost earnings to shareholders of the listed utility.
The company is now banking on the use of the more efficient transformers and a reduced length of transmission lines to cut the losses to below 10 per cent.
This is the latest in a string of initiatives by the utility to stop the theft of transformers, which is partly to blame for blackouts.
The power distributor recently started placing transformers above live wires to curb their theft. The World Bank says Kenyans stay without power for 25 days a year on average due to blackouts.
Kenya Power has had to contend with increasing connections, particularly in rural areas, pushing the number of households on the grid to 4.9 million from one million in 2010.
The number is set to grow even further with the rollout of the Last Mile connectivity project where homes will be connected to the national grid at Sh15,000 down from Sh35,000. The India-based TTDI has been supplying Kenya Power with transformers since 2004.
“This deal reflects Kenya Power’s positive evaluation of TTDI’s high quality products and of our proposal to contribute towards achieving stable electricity supply,” said TTDI managing director Katsutoshi Toda.
In 2012, replacing transformers cost Kenya Power $4 million. Kenya Power has had some success fighting transformer vandalism in recent years.
In 2013, 535 transformers were vandalised across the country, down from 898 in 2011.
