OREANDA-NEWS. April 19, 2011. Chairman & Managing Director, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (POWERGRID), Mr. S.K.Chaturvedi signed a MoU with Mr. Joel Killu, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Kenya Electric Transmission Company (KETRACO) on 12th April 2011 at Nairobi, wherein POWERGRID shall be providing assistance to KETRACO for development of Power Transmission network in Kenya. A Capacity Building Agreement has also been signed by Mr. V.M. Kaul, Director (Personal), POWERGRID and Mr. Joel Killu, the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of KETRACO for providing training to 20 nos. KETRACO engineers by POWERGRID. Under the Agreement in the Ist Phase 10 Weeks training shall be provided to KETRACO engineers by POWERGRID of India, in 2nd Phase two months hands on training shall be provided in Kenya by POWERGRID and in 3rd Phase very specialized training based on the evaluation reports for the 1st two phases shall be decided. The value of training contract for Ist Phase is USD 2,80,000 (INR 1.26 Crore). These agreements will lead to substantial future consultancy business assignments for POWERGRID on nomination basis.

It was also decided that POWERGRID shall depute its Telecom Expert (s) and System Planning Expert (s) to Nairobi to establish the requirements for a detailed study for providing assistance to KETRACO in these areas and develop action plan. KETRACO also agreed that POWERGRID would be considered for Owner’s Engineer/Consultant for some large size transmission projects in Kenya under USD 61.6 million Line of Credit being funded by Govt. of India.

Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO) is a 100% state-owned corporation incorporated in December 2008, under the Company’s Act Cap 486. Its mandate is to design, construct, operate and maintain new high voltage electricity transmission infrastructure. The infrastructure will form the backbone of the National Transmission Grid, in line with Kenya Vision 2030. Since 1954 when the first 220kV line between Nairobi and Jinja (Owen Falls) was constructed, only about 4000 kilometers of high voltage transmission network is in place to date. KETRACO will construct another 5000kilometres in the next four years focusing on strengthening the existing Transmission System, penetrating into new generation & load distribution areas and enhancing Regional Inter-connections with Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia.