Kenya Power announces nationwide blackout after towers collapse

The company added that its technicians were working to restore power in the remaining areas.

"We wish to inform our customers that power supply has been restored to parts of the following regions: Nairobi, Western Kenya, Mt. Kenya, North Rift, South Nyanza and Central Rift . We are working to restore supply to the remaining areas affected by the outage," read the update.

Kenya Power reported an interruption of power supply in many parts of the country on Tuesday, January 11, 2022.

The company issued a statement saying that the outage as affected parts of Kenya.

“We have lost power supply due to collapsed towers on the Kiambere - Embakasi high voltage transmission power line at 10.45 am this morning.

"Our engineers are working to restore electricity supply as the repairs are being undertaken . An update on the restoration progress will be issued in due course,” read the statement in part.

The Kenya Power collapsed tower that as occasioned the outage. Pulse Live Kenya

A technical team has already been dispatched to identify the roott cause and restore power to the affected areas.

In December 2021, a high voltage line transmission line from Loiyangalani to the Suswa substation collapsed resulting in the cutting of 17% of Kenya’s total peak power demand.

The national electricity grid lost about a quarter of its supply from the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) plant in Marsabit.

This forced Kenya Power to ration electricity in parts of the country until the transmission line was restored.

Kenya Power ventures into internet supply

In an attempt to cut losses, Kenya Power announced its plan to connect millions of customers in rural homes with high-speed internet.

Previously, KPLC has been leasing fibre-optic cables attached to its transmission lines to Internet service providers. Due to an increase in demand for internet, the electricity distributor is confident of rivaling all other internet providers.

“In the medium to long-term, the company is exploring the lit fibre business to increase the penetration of internet connectivity, particularly in the rural areas,” said Kenya Power in its latest annual report.

Kenya Power is at an advantage as compared to already existing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) due to its recent expansion of electricity penetration across the country which saw them connect to millions of potential customers in rural areas.