Studies
Hydro electricity. N/A  N/A

barre-colore

 

Gura and Kipchoria Small hydropower project power wheeling case studies

Country : Kenya
Client : EPK (Eastern Produce Kenya Limited) . KTDA (Kenya Tea Development Agency). GTIEA (Greening the The Industry in Est Africa)
Start Date : December 2011
Completion Date : April 2012
Value of services : 115 000€
Funder : UNDP (United Nations Development Program)
Associate/Partner : N/A
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Description :
GTIEA is supporting hydroelectric projects to supply tea factories in electricity. This strategy will significantly reduce tea industry energy costs. However the hydro sites can be rather remote from the factories. Opportunities exist to use KPLC MV lines to wheel power from the hydro station to the tea factory.
GTIEA ordered a study to design the technical, commercial and contractual conditions in the case of two hydro power stations: Gura (5 MW) near Nyeri and Kipchoria (3 MW) near Nandi, both in Kenya.
KTDA is involved in Gura project concerning four tea factories. EPK is owning seven tea factories in Kipchoria vicinity.
In addition Kenya Energy Regulatory Agency (ERC) was particularly interested in receiving suggestions to rule the wheeling activity.
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Description of the Actual Services Provided * IED built a technical model of Kipchoria and Gura connections. This allowed to compare the impacts of the powerstations in terms of losses, voltage profiles and quality of supply depending on the connection mode (11 kV, 33 kV, line routes),
* IED proposed various commercial options consisting of IPP, private lines, wheeling.
* IED proposed a methodology based to estimate wheeling capacity and energy charges. This methodology was designed to obtain wheeling tariffs that are fair to the stakeholders and favorable to common sense decisisions.
* IED calculated the economical consequences of the combined technical and commercial options based on the above methodology.
* IED proposed that wheeling tariffs are in line with the usual KPLC tariffs and ruled by the same contractual structure
In addition IED briefed ERC on its views on wheeling, detected anomalous billing procedures by KPLC and warned KTDA and EPK on metering options.