Countrywide blackout disrupts business

By Cyrus Ombati

NAIROBI, KENYA: A countrywide power blackout has disrupted business as Kenya Power blamed a technical hitch on the grid.

The company said the two transmission lines between the Olkaria geothermal load centre and Ndenderu sub-station near Nairobi tripped, while they were carrying 400 MW of electricity.

The incident happened at about 1.30 pm on Tuesday, statement from the company said.

"Subsequently, the national interconnected grid and generating system also tripped, causing a national power outage."

The statement added Kenya Power engineers immediately commenced a 'blackstart' with electricity supplied from Uganda to Sondu Miriu power station.

Electricity supply to the national grid had commenced with feeders in West Kenya few hours later, the statement said.

" Kenya Power will issue a comprehensive statement once it establishes why the two transmission lines tripped."

The most affected business were small scale ones that could not afford to use generators.

Police communication gadgets were adversely affected because most of the stations do not have generators to rely on at times of blackouts.

Some hospitals could also not cope with the situation for hours as the blackout persisted. It was impossible to establish if there were casualties as a result of the situation.