Caption: Ongoing construction of Lake Turkana wind power project. [Photo/Nation]
Electricity consumers will have to pay Ksh 5.7 billion from next year as a penalty for governments failure to build the transmission line to the Lake Turkana wind power farm.
The agreement between the Kenyan Government and the developers of Lake Turkana wind power has been reached after months of negotiations with foreign developers, their respective embassies, and lenders.
Previously the government has promised to pay a monthly fine of Ksh 700 million should it fail to honor the promise of linking the Turkana wind farm to the national grid line by January this year.
Energy principal secretary Joseph Njoroge told Business daily that the Ksh 5.7billion will be paid by Homes and Businesses through their electricity bills at Ksh 0.1 per kilowatt for a period of six years as from May 2018.
The Turkana wind power project is one of the projects that has been initiated by the Government to provide clean energy.
It is designed to comprise of 365 wind turbines with a capacity of 850kW power and a high voltage that will be connected to the Kenyan national grid through an associated Transmission Line that is to be constructed by the Kenyan Government.
The Construction is however 70 percent complete with full completion being expected by next year.