kawi254 wrote:Ericsson wrote:https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/markets/commodities/production-of-cheaper-hydropower-hits-2-year-high-as-dams-spill--4594038
Does it mean they will have a good H2.
H1 they had a significant drop in profits
Article mentions 290.48 GWh in 03/2024 which is low compared to years when Masinga dam spills over where between April - September an average of 400 Gwh is generated from Hydro per month. We watch for April - September generation figures hoping that the 'take or pay' LTWP or Ethiopia power import are not given priority over Kengen's Hydro.
April,May & June in my opinion won't rescue H2. We have had good rains since El Nino rains of November 2023 and the Hydro production has been maintained low.
I think that 'Take or Pay' for LTWP and Kipeto will sadly be first on the lineup until they reach the must-run threshold (they don't have capacity charges). Geothermal though will likely be displaced by hydro at night and periods of low demand during daytime since full dams have to just run at full capacity otherwise the water will just spill over instead. Ethiopia imports will just show up during peak demand periods. Thermals will be location specific eg Coast region and northern Kenya. After the rains are over, hydros will go back to being used as peaker plants and geothermal will be back on full-blast as baseload. Either way, Kengen makes more of its money from the capacity charges of all its power plants rather than unit sales. Hydro unit sales may cannibalize geothermal unit sales at night.
Another hydro challenge is transmission in the Western side of Kenya. Ever since the massive solar plants (Alten, Selenkei,Cedate) came on, the lines have been running at capacity hence evacuating Turkwel hydro power and solar farms at the same time has been a challenge. Unless that has been fixed, Turkwel isn't run at optimum capacity.