Identification and evaluation of cost optimal technology options for improvement of electricity access in rural Kenya

Tabitha N. Karanja
2019 Journal of Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems  
With around 12% of Kenya's rural population having access to electricity in 2014, rural electrification's progress has been conspicuously slow over the years. The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate cost optimal technology options for improvement of electricity access in rural Kenya, on a geographical information system platform. Based on a one-year scenario, the study uses site suitability and cost distance analysis to conduct a mapping exercise based on four pre-chosen
more » ... es. The results indicate that these technologies have the potential to reach around 2.1 million households increasing the national electrification rate by 28 percentage points to stand at around 94% from the current reported figures of 66%. Grid extension has the potential to reach 1.6 million households, followed by the solar photovoltaics and solar photovoltaics/wind hybrid mini-grids reaching 167,925 households while solar home systems extends to 315,844 households. Geographical information systems can be useful to energy planners, regulators, investors and users, as they aid in decision-making through the intersection and integration of information on multiple levels. Further research is also identified. consumption and other forms such as solar and wind take up the remainder [3] . Electricity for lighting is not widespread. It is found mostly in the central and western parts of the country which host most of Kenya's urban population with majority of the households (estimated at 64%) using paraffin through tin lamps or lanterns, while fuel wood is used mostly in the northern part of the country where majority of the population are pastoralists [4, 5] . Similarly, the most common cooking fuel is wood at 56%, followed by charcoal at 17% while electricity is at 0.4% amongst many other fuels [5] . This energy mix calls for integration of more sustainable forms of energy. Although Kenya's electricity demand has more than doubled from a peak demand of 785 MW in 2002/03 [6] to 1,650 MW recorded in March 2017 [7], the electricity consumption per capita has had a much slower progress. In 2003 it was recorded at 128 kWh growing to 167 kWh in 2014, compared to the Sub-Saharan (SSAs) regional value of 483 kWh in the same year [8]. Likewise, the country's performance on increasing access to electricity has been sluggish with the national electrification rate rising with around 25 percentage points over twenty years. As of 2014, 36% of the population had access to electricity with an urban electrification rate of 68.4% while the rural electrification rate stood at 12.6% [8]. The slothful progress of Rural Electrification (RE) suggests that specific focus needs to be accorded to this sub-sector if universal access is to be achieved. RE can be described as electrifying rural and remote parts of a country. The objective of electrifying rural areas is faced with many challenges such as low load density due to low population densities, poor load factors characterized by evening peaks, remote areas with rough terrain as well as high capital and operation costs for grid extension. In addition, people living in these areas tend to be poor with agriculture as their main economic activity, which limits productive uses of electricity. To address electricity access under such diverse situations, there is need to take advantage of innovative and successful off-grid approaches that use renewable energy applications such as Solar Home Systems (SHS) or hybrid mini-grid systems using Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) or in combination with diesel-powered rather than rely on grid electrification alone [9] . It therefore, suggests that RE planning requires a creative and coordinated strategy that enables decision makers at the macro-level to choose economically sound electrification technologies that consider the social and environmental effects at the micro-level. Spatial analysis carried out on Geographical Information System (GIS) platform, offers such an innovative approach, such that in RE planning, it would include modelling relationships between elements such as population density, distance to the main grid, available local renewable energy resources to generate new interactions. In turn, this would provide new knowledge and results that can influence the solutions needed to provide suitable electrification options. LITERATURE REVIEW The rudimentary levels of infrastructure performance in terms of quality, quantity and access in SSA are a major impediment of growth and productivity in the region. According to the Global Competitive Report, 2018, SSA scored 46.3 out of a possible 100 points, ranking it last globally [10] . Additionally, there has been minimal addition of electricity generating capacity over the last 20 years in the region, increasing by 0.01 MW per 1,000 people in 2012 from 0.03 MW in 1990 [11]. Many factors contribute to this trend. Therefore, the lack of electricity infrastructure in rural areas is not surprising because RE is seen as an enormous infrastructure project, economically unattractive for private developers as well as for governments that must optimize the limited resources that they have: making it more complex than urban electrification [12] .
doi:10.13044/j.sdewes.d7.0276 fatcat:jy7uywf4xrgz5o4mld6bacml3q