Kenya’s government clears some confusion about its new agency, the Geothermal Development Corp. (GDC), which is supposed to drive geothermal development in Kenya, so a recent article in Kenya’s Daily Nation.

The article refers to Kenya as a “continental leader in geothermal energy development, (but development) progress in this clean power field has lagged behind the potential.

Nevertheless, the government has put a lot of effort into playing catch-up, especially at the policy level. Some time back, it formed the Geothermal Development Corporation, and has subsequently appointed some board members.

On Tuesday, the State moved to clear confusion over whether the unit would operate as an independent body or as a department of the Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) by advertising for the position of a general manager, as well as a competition for a company logo design.

There are good reasons why the establishment of the GDC is important for this country. For a start, hydropower resources are wearing thin even as national demand for electricity threatens to outstrip supply.

Secondly, it was critical that KenGen, largely a water-based power producer, did not control a process that should allow competition to its operations.

Lastly, as a State agency, GDC will bear the gigantic cost of the risky well-drilling process, leaving power generation to others.

However, even as we hail the move, we urge watchdog bodies to closely focus on its procurement process to prevent a repeat of the widespread Moi era corruption for which Kenyans are still paying through the nose every month in the form of power bills.”

Source: Kenya Daily Nation

6 Comments

1. 

   calistus ndongoliPosted Aug 30th 2009 3:34 pm

   As we focus on the new mandate of geothermal exploration by GDC. the infrastructure development both for generation of power and transimission to the nation grid has not been given similar weight as it is with GDC assignment. how then is the government ensuring that the well done job anticipated to be conducted by GDC will not be wasted by having the steam or excess steam utilised Simultaneously. kengen at the moment has many wells at olkaria site which are still under utilised in terms production capacity;  which in my view will reqiure enormous investment in terms power plant building. how is these case taken care of to ensure GDC achieves its mandate fully in relation to the country’s vision 2030 by selling all the steam found by then?

   regards

   calistus ndongoli
   calistusndongoli@gmail.com
   calisstus@yahoo.co.uk
   kenya
   mob: 0725 864 966
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   David Sakwa AbwalabaPosted Oct 6th 2009 10:27 am

   I think this is the right step, GDC should come up as a complete  identity so as to compete the existing power generating corporation.  Competition in generation and supply of electricity will improve the  quality of services Kenyans are getting.
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   John KapoiPosted Mar 5th 2010 10:27 am

   I think this is the right direction that will lead us towards what we have been yearning for
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   stephen rotich samburmoPosted Apr 14th 2010 9:05 am

   this mandate by the government is a wake up call for natural resource utilization.i really feel its one of the major strategies for realizing the 2030 goal.we as a young engineer realy feels we need a place for development of automated systems and strategies to harness this underutilized energy with high efficiency and prowess
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   PETER OLE SUNKUYIAPosted Sep 8th 2010 7:28 am

   This is the ever better way to alienate the idlers in the field of competition, I really credit the movers in GDC for such a unique step of which i hope it will be a new dawn to many especially the people with a vision for tomorrow.

   PETER OLE SUNKUYIA
   NAIVASHA-KENYA
   +254725542688
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