The recent blackout in Nairobi is a great lesson on why PRODUCTION can exceed CONSUMPTION when the TRANSMISSION and DISTRIBUTION are not up to par.

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Massive under-investment spanning decades [since the Moi Error] means Kenya's grid is weak and cannot support increased production/generation of power that needs to be transported & distributed over long distances.

Electrical power is transported at very high voltages & needs to be stepped down even when it gets to industrial users. Illegal connections feeding off transformers make things worse. Vandalism doesn't help either.

As a country, we need the entire system strengthened not just increased generation.

Supply doesn't affect a grid. The quality of a grid affects the ability to transport power from the source to the consumer. Why do you think 'over supply' affects an 'aging grid'?

Overload is more like it. Supply is totally different. The writer makes it look like Juja is the only substation, yet there are others...lessos, Tala etc. The Juja station is old yes and indeed it needs rehabilitation, but a power fault could be caused by lightening (expect many of those in the coming days), power surge...etc

My view is that KPLCs current problem is an architecture/design of its network. We're connecting too much load all over without a redesign of the trunk lines to manage the extra power being pushed through them. We're almost at South African level of chaos. Meanwhile KPLC and Kengen management are preoccupied with tendering. Wait till the rains fall and chickens will come home to roost. Power blackouts lasting days as they firefight outages all over.

Kengen growth is tied at the hip with Kenya economic growth booms and bursts cycles by design/default. Therefore, kengen is analogous to a terminally ill bed ridden or an infant tax payer paying taxes on the medical bills to improve health care when it's clear death will come beckoning before the tax is counted .Every year machines systems, grids and new power sources will be sought and be dropped to feed an ogre called e_con relegating kengen to fortune of economy performance. Once the e_con has plateaued, the Capex hungry kengen dream team will be left with issues of efficiencies and not effectiveness. that time kengen may cease to be a strategic gova's asset and shareholders will enjoy. So, when will Capex demand for kengen be rivaled by its earnings and spare some profit reserves enough to excite the market and spare us the lurking worry of capital demand inform of rit issues? When will that be? Is it 1, 2,3yrs or 10, 20---or say 100yrs? The closet someone has in attempting to answer that is in vision 2030 dream team. Where r kebatis to tells us how r we faring on this front? Do we have electric guzzlers like magnelev or bullet trains or electric/hybrid cars in our country so that we construct a few if not many nuclear powered plants and altogether ditch hydropowered plants since they are ineffective or a nema/ environmentalists guys have done environmental audit and condemned dams and there construction? How many silicone valleys or Tatu cities or how you power dependent institutions like military installations so far r in our economy. These of course will come n demand power. Decommissioning will probably be at a hefty cost so is nukes and that ultimately will require cash strapped kengen to Cash call. Actually for kengen it's a cash call since growth will catch kengen struggling between div. payout to please thirsty shareholders and the planners will always lag behind to keep their job skills relevant. If your not a hopeful of a middle economy or middle lyf economy you may as well not be a hopeful of kengen. Harvest time will come. Yes. By end of maturity or by cycles.