Tea factories to get own power source

Chinese firm is building small hydropower stations to provide lower-cost, reliable electricity to the processing plants, and some to spare

A Chinese company with extensive hydropower construction experience is developing three small-scale hydropower stations in Kenya to help reduce local tea factories' costs and improve their competitiveness.

Jiangxi Water and Hydropower Construction Kenya Ltd, a subsidiary of Jiangxi Water and Hydropower Construction Co, is building the stations in eastern Kenya, which is renowned for breathtaking views of Mount Kenya. The three stations should be completed in late 2016 with a total capacity of about 9.4 megawatts. The biggest of the three will be located in Murang'a county on the North Mathioya River, with a capacity of 5.6 megawatts. The company won the bid with a price of $36 million.

Established in the 1950s, the water and hydropower company is headquartered in China's central province of Jiangxi, which the Yangtze River, the longest in Asia, crosses.

He Xiang, general manager of the company, says the landscapes and soil of the region where the three stations are located are very similar to that of Jiangxi, creating great opportunities to exercise their experience in water and hydropower projects.

He says while the stations will power at least eight tea factories around them, there still may be excess electricity that can be supplied to the Kenyan grid.

The tea factories have been experiencing soaring energy costs coupled with occasional power blackouts. He says the new stations will reduce the cost of power by about 20 percent.

"Electricity is one of our most expensive costs in tea production," says an executive from a tea factory near the hydropower station on the North Mathioya River.

"It makes a lot of economic sense to have your own source of power. Electricity from the national distributor is unreliable. We also have no control over the costs," says the executive, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the press. The factory incurs costs as high as $97,000 to $146,000 depending on fluctuating oil prices. Kenya relies on energy from hydropower, geothermal and oil-powered generators.

There will be independent power transmission facilities connected to the station, which will transmit electricity to four tea factories in that area.

"We are also doing feasibility studies to join with other factories. More buyers of our electricity will enable us to recoup our investments faster," he says. "In fact, we have more than enough. This is a 5.6 megawatt station, and the four factories may only use 2 (megawatts)."

He adds that it is possible to sell power to up to 15 factories.

For the three power stations, dams will be built to collect water and an intake will be built near the dams to direct water to the generator and finally back to the river.

He, the general manager, says the design of the power stations has taken into account environmental protection.

Meanwhile, a passage will be built to ensure the fish can get through the dams.

The power stations will make it possible for tea factories to get rid of the environmentally unfriendly method of heating huge boilers using firewood from eucalyptus trees. "Eucalyptus consumes a lot of water and is harmful to nearby plants and the ecosystem," he says.

The company will also help train workers in water intake, gate operation and maintenance, He says. "The equipment will arrive before February next year. The operations crew will join us in equipment assembly and debugging as well."

To meet the requirements of the Kenya Tea Development Agency, the company will purchase power generation equipment from Germany, which He said is at least twice the price of Chinese equipment.

"It makes for a longer time to recover the cost, with the shortest time about seven years and the longest about eight years, and thus unable to produce a timely cash flow," he said, citing the shortcoming of buying much more expensive equipment.

He's company is considering investing directly in hydropower stations using Chinese equipment. "China has gained a lot of experiences in building hydropower stations. The quality of our power generation assembly is high," he says.

houliqiang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily Africa Weekly 03/04/2016 page7)