Kenya Power has partnered with the National Youth Service (NYS) to hasten the Facilities Database (FDB) digital platform data clean-up exercise. The clean-up exercise will facilitate the digitization of the network, and provide the framework for the grid automation project beginning 19th July, 2021.
The Facilities Data Base digital platform is a Geographical Information System (GIS) application, through which the company captures analyses, manages and stores its transmission and distribution facilities data.
The countrywide exercise is funded by the World Bank under the Kenya Electricity Management Program (KEMP) at a cost of Ksh. 225 million. It will be covered by 770 NYS officers, 700 servicemen and women, and 70 supervisors.
“With a 99-year history, Kenya Power is a long standing business with assets covering the length and breadth of this country. The objective of this exercise is to create visibility of the network on the FDB digital platform for efficient and effective service delivery,” said Bernard Ngugi, Kenya Power’s Managing Director and CEO.
The Company has so far digitized 70% of its network comprising 83 transmission substations, 295 primary substations, 73,486 secondary substations (transformers) and 77,990.69 km of high and medium voltage lines.
The NYS partnership will cover the remaining 30% which will include the digitization of 166,623.84 km of low voltage lines, and over 8.2 million customer meters. Customer meters will also be linked to their respective transformers to reflect their current physical locations.
The data clean-up project will enable Kenya Power to conduct precise energy measurement which will in turn aid the business in identifying losses’ hotspots to facilitate effective remedial action.
The digitization exercise will also assist the company to identify overloaded, under-utilized, and imbalanced transformers to enable us take corrective action. Digitizing the network will also have a positive impact on the design stage of the connectivity process, with limited field visits, making the process faster and more efficient.