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northumberland avatar image
northumberland asked

Is grid tie possible in Kenya?

@Omondi Odhiambo commented on this forum that it was not allowed or possible to 'feed in' excess power generated from a solar system to the grid in Kenya. I would like to ask Omondi where he obtained that information from and if he could share the source with me. I have 'grid tie' solar systems set up in Ireland and in the UK, where most people with solar have a 'grid tie' system. All of Omondi's questions about how to get around the difficulties of not being able to 'feed in' make the application that I want to install in Nairobi, just like I have here in Ireland, very challenging. I want a grid tie system in Nairobi that a) provides power during the day, b) charges batteries during the day for me to use power at night and c) provides back up power when the Kenya grid goes down, which it does on average once a week and for several hours at a time once a month. Is there any prospect of this 'ban' of grid feed in changing Omondi?



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mtadao avatar image
mtadao answered ·

First, Kenya is in Eastern Africa not South Africa. Grid tie solar equipment is widely available and is used when there is a power supply disruption. But selling excess solar power back to the grid monopoly does not happen and I even doubt they have any idea that it's possible.

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northumberland avatar image northumberland commented ·

Mtado, not sure who said Kenya was in South Africa, not me, I have lived there for 20 years so I think I know, never mind that. But you are, I am somewhat happy to say, wrong. Kenya does have a Feed In Tarriff, and there is a scale of payments for small scale energy producers gazetted and approved by the Ministry of Energy, and reviewed every 3 years. I found the relevant guidelines on the web from 2012 and would be happy to share the link with you. THe problem is that in order to qualify as a small producer, you have to have a MINIMUM of 0.5 MW per day of generation and a max of 10Mw per day , which is way above the capacity of any private individual house owner with panels on his or her roof. (I benefit from a feed in tarriff with 4kWp from 12 panels in England!. So that is certainly a problem. What is not clear is whether, if you have a small scale solar set up producing 5kW peak, and you want that to run as a Grid Tie system, you can just connect it in to the KPLC grid at your meter, not expecteing any payment of course for anything exported, but as you will know, that makes the whole grid tie work and operate automatically in the event of a power cut.

send me your private email if this site allows you and we can chat some more. Asante sana for your interest


David

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ttbb avatar image ttbb northumberland commented ·

@Northumberland



https://kplc.co.ke/img/full/o8wccHsFPaZ3_ENERGY%20ACT%202019.pdf

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northumberland avatar image northumberland ttbb commented ·

Very helpful, thanks a lot for your follow up! David

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