Kenyan Electric Power Network: Integration of Renewable Energy Systems

Electric energy is a key contributor to socio-economic growth and development and provides the basis for industrialization, technological advancement and global communication. However, most economies especially in the developing countries prioritized implementation of the conventional power stations and traditional centralized grid network systems connecting only the major towns and with limited penetration to the remote and sub urban centres. Residents of such places are thereby left without any access to electricity or with the only alternative of relying on wood fuel and diesel which are uneconomical and have detrimental effects on the environment. Efforts to bridge this gap in electricity access existing in such places as the rural villages of Kenya have been greatly impeded by the nature of their terrain, the extremely high costs associated with extending the electric network infrastructure as well as the unavailability of proper policies governing the renewable energy sector. Conversely, most regions of the country are richly endowed with exploitable quantities of renewable energy sources especially solar and wind.