This archive report was first published on 28 October 2019.
Kenya Power Company (KPC) has adopted a new and cheaper technology to connect electricity to thousands of homesteads in remote areas. The technology, dubbed Single Wire Earth Return (SWER), requires low load at low cost and will help the company achieve the government's goal of universal access to electricity.
On October 28, 2019, KPC Murang'a branch manager Engineer Harrison Kamau led officers to commission a pilot project under the new technology at Karaba village in Kigumo sub-county. The project connected more than 115 homesteads in the locality, which had been hard to access due to its terrain.
According to Engineer Kamau, the new technology involves the use of one cable to connect power, unlike the conventional grid system where more than two cables are used. 'Here at Karaba village, we have connected power to homes within a radius of 3.5 kilometres using a single cable, a project which cost about Sh12 million, which is far much cheaper as compared to the use of a conventional grid,' he noted.
The new technology will reduce costs on power connection by more than a third and will assist the company to reach areas where they could not be reached through the use of a conventional grid. 'With the new technology, we just need an isolation transformer and then have a single cable which can go up to 80 kilometres,' Engineer Kamau added.
The Karaba village pilot is the only one in the Mount Kenya region, and the company is doing a survey to establish areas where the technology can be applied. Engineer Kamau urged members of the public to safeguard the equipment and power infrastructure and desist from interfering with the network in any way.
