Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) has secured Sh10.5 billion funding for a battery storage for excess wind and solar power, to boost supply in the evening when demand peaks besides easing reliance on the costly thermal power.
The Global Climate Fund (GCF) of the United Nations will provide $45million (Sh5.84 billion) while World Bank’s International Development Agency (IDA) will disburse the remaining 32.08 million euros (Sh4.65 billion), according to KenGen’s latest annual report.
Currently, KenGen does not have a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) for the wind and solar plants, making it impossible for Kenya Power to tap these plants during peak demand hours.
Availability of the wind and solar power during the peak demand hours is key to reducing reliance on imports from Ethiopia and cutting usage of thermal power, thus boosting Kenya’s electricity supply security and lowering bills.
KenGen says the BESS will have a capacity of 100 Megawatt-hours (MWh), placing it at the centre of the firm’s push to provide excess power from its wind and solar plants to support the national grid when demand peaks in the evening.
‘Secured financing for BESS project Gogo Redevelopment and Seven Forks Solar,’ KenGen says in the report, citing the BESS funding as a major highlight of the year ended June 2026.
GCF was formed in 2010 by 194 countries as a financial mechanism to fund projects meant to lower carbon emissions from fossil fuels in develop ing countries while IDA is the arm of the World Bank that provides grants and concessional loans to developing economies.
The loan for the BESS project, whose interest rate remains undisclosed, will mature in 2048. KenGen says that the project is currently at the design and tendering stage.
Lack of BESS has also forced KenGen to vent out steam and lower generation whenever demand is low, highlighting why setting up of the storage is critical to the company.
Kenya Power is currently forced to tap more electricity from Ethiopia and Uganda besides switching on the dirty thermal plants to support a surge in demand in the evenings. But thermal power is costly and its continued usage has hampered efforts of supplying consumers with cheap electricity.
KenGen’s BESS project, to be located in Olkaria, Kipevu, Embakasi and Muhoroni, is key to storing excess wind and solar produced when wind speeds and radiation are at peak, then supplying this power to Kenya Power when demand peaks.
The firm has a wind plant in Ngong Hills which supplied 48 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity to Kenya Power in the year ended June 2025. But this could have been more if the company had BESS to store the power and dispatch it when demand peaks.
KenGen is also planning to build its first solar plant, which will have a generation capacity of 42.5 Megawatts (MW) and will be located along the Seven Forks Cascade.
The solar power plant and the BESS are two of the projects that KenGen is banking on to significantly boost its electricity supply to Kenya Power and lower reliance on hydropower imports from Ethiopia.
KenGen targets to increase generation by 5,540 MW and set up 500 MWh of BESS in the next few years, further cementing its position as the single biggest supplier of electricity to the national grid.
The firm supplied 8.97 billion kWh of electricity to Kenya Power in the year ended June 2026, accounting for 57.2 percent of the total electricity.
KenGen has been on a profit trajectory over the years, largely driven by the surge in electricity sales to Kenya Power.
The company’s net profit marginally dropped to Sh10.35 billion in the year ended June 2026 from Sh10.48 billion a year ago.