Kenya Power CEO reveals reason behind Recent power Interruptions.
Speaking at Citizen TV, Kenya power Managing Director, Joseph Siror, cited that heavy rains have been causing short circuits, that lead to power Interruptions.
He explained short circuit may be triggered by stormy rains swaying trees or power lines.
He stated,”When it rains heavily, it can cause trees to fall on the line, and it causes a short circuit, thereby causing a disturbance on the network.”
“Sometimes rains are accompanied by strong winds which have an effect on the conductors and cause a disturbance,” he added.
Secondly, he revealed that a strong surface runoff water can also cause shake power poles leading to destabilisation.
He stated,”Rain does a number of things. There is the aspect of lightning which is part of the factors but in certain installations like the poles and pylons and we have a situation where during heavy rains, some of them are washed away.”
US National Institute of Health (NIH) Also states that lightning triggers black outs.
They explained,” The probability of direct strike in a given region increases with line height, thus, high voltage (HV) lines may be subject to direct strikes more than the medium voltage (MV) or low voltage (LV) lines,”
“When lightning strikes the ground or any object close to a line, the electromagnetic fields will propagate in all directions. The inductive and capacitive coupling of such electromagnetic fields with conducting wires induce voltage impulses in the power system,” NIH explained.
On matters power Charges, Siror stated that external factors have contributed to high power charges, clarifying that KPLC does not impose electricity charges as perceived by consumers.
He stated,”The tariff that is being used right now is what was approved by the regulator. No tariff is applied without approval from the regulator.”
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