The 50 MW Garissa Solar Power Plant

The Garissa Solar Plant is the largest grid connected solar power plant in East & Central Africa. This is the first time that Kenya has developed a major solar power plant to harness its abundant solar energy resource to diversify the power generation mix and reduce energy costs. Currently this project is contributing about 2% of the national energy mix and has significantly led to a reduction of energy costs in the country thereby promoting the development of clean, reliable, sustainable and affordable electricity.

Garissa project 3

^{Energy Cabinet Secretary, Hon. Charles Keter accompanied by Majority Leader in Parliament Hon. Adan Duale and REREC Chairman Prof. Simon Gicharu during a recent visit of the 50MW Garissa solar Power Project.}

Scope of works

This included the following:

Construction of a 132KV bay at 132/33/11KV Ketraco Substation linking to the 132KV Bus bars.
Construction of 5.7 km of 132KV transmission line with 16No. pylons (Towers) from the Solar Plant to Ketraco Substation.
Established a 33/132 KV substation at the Solar Plant with a 50 MVA 33/132KV step up transformer
Established a 50 MVA (Installed capacity is 54.65MW) solar generation plant generation complete, with Solar panels, step up transformers -33no x 0.415/33kV transformers , indoor 33kV switch room and control room for monitoring, including CCTV installations for monitoring.

Project Capacity

The project involves implementation of a 50MW grid based solar power generation plant whereby all the generated power is sold to Kenya Power through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). To support the project, a 6 Kilometre 132 Kilo Vault (KV) power transmission line has been constructed between the REREC solar power plant and the Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (KETRACO) sub-station in Garissa to feed the power into the national power grid.

Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives

Various REREC's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities have been implemented to benefit communities living around the project for purposes of enhancing community ownership of the project through provision of health, education and security services. These initiatives include: