The Icelandic consulting firms Mannvit, ISOR, Vatnaskil and Verkís recently made an agreement with Kenya Electricity, KenGen about capacity and feasibility study of the Olkaria geothermal area. The agreement comes after an international tender.
Olkaria geothermal field is located in Kenya’s Rift Valley Northwest of Nairobi south of Lake Naivasha. The utilization of the area began more than three decades ago and included consultation from Icelandic scientists. Currently there are three power stations in production totaling 200 MW. Plans for two 140 MW power plants are underway and KenGen anticipates that the harnessing capacity of the area is about 1000 MW. In comparison, the Hellisheiði Plant in Iceland is 300 MW.
ISOR and Vatnaskil will develop a model to simulate the behavior of the geothermal reservoir to predict the future capacity of the area. Mannvit and Verkís will make a technical assessment on the current power plants as well as for new power plants to be constructed, in addition to do environmental assessment of the area.
Partners in Kenya are the consulting firms Armstrong and Duncan. The project has resumed and estimated time of complition is one year. Utilization of more geothermal areas are planned in Kenya and the companies, Vatnaskil included, are closely monitoring the process.
