A consortium of Chinese companies has been awarded a US $96m (Approx Ksh 11.9 Billion) contract to complete the transmission line linking Lake Turkana Wind Power to the national grid by August 31st 2018; following the termination of a Spanish firm’s contract last year.
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The firms, NARI Group Corporation and Power China Guizhou Engineering Company, have committed to pay a fine of US $10m per month should they fail to meet the August 31st deadline, stated construction review construction review
Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) on Tuesday signed the contract with the Chinese companies to complete the 428km power line which is 70% complete.
The power line had stopped following the termination of the contract with Spanish firm Isolux, August last year. It had been put under receivership over debt and liquidity challenges.
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The developers of the Lake Turkana Wind Power have already fined Kenya US $57m for the delays of the high-voltage line.
Construction of the power line started in November 2015 but was delayed by landowners’ compensation demands and last year’s termination of the Isolux contract.
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The Turkana wind firm, the largest in Africa, with a capacity of 310MW, enough to power up to one million homes, was supposed to inject the first 50MW into the grid in October 2016 and the whole capacity by last July.
The Treasury allocated the US $ 57m in a September supplementary budget to be wired to Lake Turkana for last year’s delay and the fines will be recovered this year from consumers via monthly bills.
The Chinese contractors have been involved in other local works in Olkaria steam fields, Naivasha.
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