Nairobi — The newly commissioned 220/66 kilovolt (kV) Kimuka Substation will serve 560,000 customers in Nairobi and surrounding areas after it was opened yesterday by President William Ruto.
The substation now supplies five 66kV feeder lines to Karen/Dagoreti/Kikuyu, Ngong, Matasia, Magadi, and Ngemwa KPC pumping station.
Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) John Mativo said the Kimuka energization will further assist in de-loading the existing 220kV Suswa-North lines and 220/66kV transformers at Nairobi North Substation by transferring load (80 megawatt) from Nairobi North Substation to Kimuka Station.
"This will help reduce the risk of system instability and improve security of evacuation of power from green sources (geothermal, wind and hydro imports) from Suswa to Nairobi," said Mativo.
The Kimuka substation line is part of the Nairobi Ring and Associated Substations project, which once completed will offer an alternative supply path for power into the Nairobi Metropolitan region. It will additionally remove the load from the existing overloaded substations.
The scope of the project involves the construction of a 103 km 400kV double circuit line from Suswa substation to Isinya substation rated at 1200MW, two 220kV substations at Suswa and Isinya, as well as 220/66kV substations at Kimuka, Athi River and Komarock.
The Kimuka project has been financed by Agence française de développement (AFD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the Government of Kenya (GoK) to the tune of $25 million.
The Nairobi Ring Associated Substations infrastructure project falls under the country's Vision 2030 flagship projects within the energy sector.
The project, which has a 1,700MW evacuating capacity, is part of the system strengthening/capacity enhancement projects that will improve the transfer capacity of electrical energy and address the challenges of low voltages, high transmission losses, unreliability of supply, and network security.
