wiredInUSA - April 2012
wiredInUSA - April 2012
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Kenya Power plans to raise 20 billion
shillings ($241.7 million) to convert
overhead power lines into underground
cables.
Kenya Power is the sole transmission and
distribution utility in east Africa’s largest
economy, where blackouts are common
due to generation shortfalls and an aging
grid. Joseph Njoroge, the chief executive
officer of the power firm, said in a
statement that the underground project
is set to begin next year, and will convert
a total of 2,215km of power lines in three
major cities Nairobi, Mombasa and Ki-
sumu.
Njoroge said his company was considering
a proposal by the Chinese company,
China National Machinery Equipment
Import and Export Corporation (CMEC)
to carry out the underground cabling in
Nairobi.
The removal of the overhead network
will start in the capital, which is the most
affected by frequent blackouts, some of
which are a result of motorists knocking
down electric poles.
Kenya Power to fund
underground cabling
ASIA / AFRICA NEWS
During mid-March, Altech Kenya
Data Networks experienced service
degradation as a result of three
major cuts on its core fiber on
the Mombasa-Nairobi route.
Altech KDN, Seacom’s anchor tenant in
East Africa, said the fault affected KDN’s
primary and secondary fiber backhauls
to and from Mombasa thus causing
downtime for internet services. The first
fault was located near the Miritini area
on 13
th
March, occasioned by another
operator who was restoring their cable.
The second cut occurred on 14
th
March
near the Jomvu area, where KDN’s cables
were exposed by a road contractor.
The cable was consequently vandalized,
but the company’s engineers managed
to resolve the fault in less than two hours.
The third cut was damaged by a
contractor creating a road diversion
for access between Mazeras - Miritini.
CEO Shahab Meshki has since apologized
to customers for the outages and said that
his technical team was working round
the clock to minimize the downtime
experienced and restore services.
He also indicated that Altech is working to
increase resilient routes on this and other
routes.
Services disrupted
by fiber cable cuts
Doha Cables, the Qatar-based
manufacturer of high voltage cables,
has announced plans to expand the
manufacture of its 400kV and 500kV
cable ranges.
Ahmed Fathy El Sewedy, vice president
of the Elsewedy Cables subsidiary, said
that plans are underway to expand
production. “We are currently working
on expanding the manufacturing of our
extra high voltage cables to produce
400kV and 500kV cables. We are also
expanding in the field of super conductors,”
El Sewedy said.
With Qatar’s goal to expand the local
tourism industry to accommodate both
the 2020 Olympics and the 2022 FIFA
World Cup, “There has been an increase
in the number of projects in the field
of infrastructure, as well as a growing
demand in the building sector,” he added.
“Globally there has been a general
decline in demand as well as an oversupply
of cables in the market. We’re working to
not only be a cables provider, but also
to be a solutions provider. This will allow
us to be competitive in both service and
supply,” El Sewedy explained. He said
that the company planned to expand its
operations to some of the fastest growth
economies in the world.
EHV
expansion
Alstom Grid has been selected by the
Kuwait Ministry of Electricity and Water
(MEW) to further modernize its grid
operations and enhance the management
of its network assets through the
implementation of a fully integrated
grid management solution. The project
will include an upgrade of Kuwait
town district control center’s energy
management system (EMS), a new
integrated distribution management
system (IDMS) and an asset
management system (AMS).
AMEinfo reports that, through its
advanced e-terraplatform and
e-terradistribution solutions, Alstom will
create a single system for managing the
medium- and high-voltage operations of
the Kuwait Town District control center.
In addition to managing the real-time
operations of the grid, the system access
will be extended to maintenance
departments to better manage MEW’s
assets, review their health index, and
decide on appropriate maintenance
strategies. This new approach combines
the previously separated operation and
maintenance processes, allowing the
operators to have a holistic view of the
entire system for increased reliability
and efficiency.
Grid solution
for Kuwait
