Planet
KUDURA Mini–grid delivers clean energy, displacing polluting kerosene. A proportion of the sites will pilot water pumping and purification to deliver clean drinking water, a precious commodity in the hot and dry Turkana County.
| Company | KUDURA Power East Africa (KPEA) |
| Sector | Power / Energy |
| Country | Kenya |
| Total Project Cost | USD 11.3m |
| PIDG Commitment |
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| Dates of PIDG involvement |
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Kenya’s power sector has seen considerable growth in recent years, with 75 per cent of the population now having access to electricity. However, in several counties, the majority of rural communities continue to rely on kerosene for their main source of lighting. Kenya’s Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation has identified off-grid power as a cost-effective and efficient way to connect remote and rural areas. The Government of Kenya is also committed to improving access to clean water among those communities.
PIDG is working with renewable energy developer Rural Village Energy Solutions (RVE.SOL) to support the scale-up of its innovative multi-sector KUDURA Power East Africa (KPEA) business. The KUDURA Mini-grid project is building an additional 20 mini-grids in Kenya’s Turkana County, 700km north of the capital, Nairobi. Incorporating battery back-up, the mini-grids will range in size from 20 – 60kWp. It is anticipated that the project will provide approximately 5,220 new connections, mostly for rural households and SMEs, and will densify existing KPEA grids in Busia County to connect a further 910 households.
KUDURA Mini–grid delivers clean energy, displacing polluting kerosene. A proportion of the sites will pilot water pumping and purification to deliver clean drinking water, a precious commodity in the hot and dry Turkana County.
KUDURA is installing security lighting as part of its offering, supporting late trading and ensure the safety of rural communities.
Decentralised mini–grids are considered more resilient to the impacts of climate change than centralised power systems. Fewer people are affected by an outage, and their modular structure allows mini-grids to resume operations more quickly after an extreme weather event.
KUDURA delivers electricity for productive use such as fishing cold chains and electric vehicle charging. The modular nature of the mini-grids enables KPEA to respond to changing need over time, redeploying capacity across its sites as demand increases.
It is anticipated that KUDURA will consolidate mini–grids as a commercially viable infrastructure class in the region, attracting private sector investment and demonstrating the value of an holistic approach to delivering power, water and appliance financing as a stimulus for economic development.
Grant funding from PIDG is supporting a variety of capacity building initiatives. The project is also supported by Agence Française de Développement’s (AFD) GMG II Kenya Mini-grid Facility programme, with additional funding from the European Union.
