Kenya has 60 days before its main producer of hydropower plant runs out of water and is shut down

Kenya has about sixty days before they may start experiencing power blackouts if it does not rain according to Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen).

KenGen Chief Energy Planner, Willy Ochieng has said the water levels in the Masinga Hydroelectric Power Station at Masinga Dam are dangerously low and the facility will be forced to shut down in the next 60 days if it does not rain.

“Water levels at Masinga dam are very low at the moment but it can still take us for about the next sixty days assuming no rains come” Chief Energy Planner at KenGen, Willy Ochiene said.

Ochieng’s remarks contradict Energy Cabinet Secretary Charles Keter's last week comments where he gave the country 14 days before the electricity producing dam is shut down.

The 175,000,000 cu ft Masinga dam is Kenya’s main producer of hydropower, which the country is heavily dependent on.

Kenya relies on both Hydroelectric power generators and diesel powered thermal generators to generate electricity and should the skies fail to open up the country will be forced to switch on the diesel powered generators which is expensive as it consumes a lot of diesel, resulting to higher electricity bills and power outages to Kenyan households already burdened with high cost of living.

To ensure power is not interrupted the state owned power firm has called on the Kenya Meteorological Department to monitor, evaluate and provide information on the possibility of a La Nina happening this year, for early planning.