Kenya Experiences A Nationwide Blackout Kenya was plunged into an outage blackout yesterday, Tuesday 28th May 2013 in the afternoon. It is reported that the fault came from Ndenderu substation which tripped causing 400 megawatts from the grid to be disconnected. However, the national interconnecting grid and generating system is also said to have tripped causing the national outage. Kenya Power communications department said that their engineers were working to ensure there was power connectivity using electricity.Kenya Power engineers immediately commenced a ‘blackstart’ with electricity supplied from Uganda to Sondu Miriu power station,” a statement from Kenya Power indicated. Many businesses came to a stand still because of this power outage. Kenya Power went on to urge the public to be patient with them as they tried to fix the problem. They also said they would explain why the transmission lines tripped. “We wish to apologise to our customers for the inconvenience and assure them that everything possible is being done to restore power as quickly as possible.”said the communication department. Power blackouts in Kenya are a common occurrence sometimes blamed on water shortage especially in the dry season.Sixty percent of electricity in Kenya is generated from hydropower, 30 percent from geothermal generators whereas 25 percent is supported by diesel generators.There has been a persistent urge for Kenya to consider wind power as opposed to over-reliance on hydro energy.
