Kenya’s National Cement to construct a US$19.0m coal-fired power plant

Kenya’s National Cement is planning to construct a new coal-fired power plant in Kajiado in a bid to source power for its operations.

The new coal-fired power plant will power the company’s planned mining and clinker manufacturing unit. The company is expanding the capacity of its clinker to a 1.7-million-tonnes capacity from the current 600,000 tonnes.

Clinker from this plant will be transported to the company’s manufacturing unit in Lukenya for further processing into cement.

The planned power plant is National Cement’s strategy to deal with delays in connecting to the grid, as well as high costs of electricity.

This is a crucial step considering that cement production/manufacturing is an intensive power-consuming process. Companies are paying up to US$0.18 per kilowatt hour in Kenya by buying from the national grid, while coal power would cost them US$0.15 per kilowatt hour based on current international coal prices.

The Lamu coal plant project will cost US$2bn and the project bid was won by Gulf Energy Limited and Centum Investment Company Limited.

http://constructionreviewonline.com/2014/11/03/national-cement-construct-us-19-0m-coal-fired-power-plant-kenya/