What is load shedding and why Kenyan Government is considering it as power blackout is rampant

When there is insufficient power station capacity to meet the demand (load) from all customers, the electricity system becomes unbalanced, causing it to trip out across the country (a blackout) and take days to restore.
 

What is Load Shedding?

Load shedding is a technical term mostly used in electricity or power rationing where small-scale or scheduled power outages to contain demand surges. It enables predictability in power avaibality and reduces unplanned outages.

Why do countries Load Shed, and why is Kenya Considering it

Extreme weather, sharply increased electric demand, unplanned generation plant outages, transmission constraints, unexpected damage to equipment, unavailability of purchased power, or a combination of these circumstances can all lead to load shedding.

Countries especially third world have been experiencing several unplanned outages. This may due to two reasons such as increased indstrialization or increasing demand for power for home usage, and also due to lack of capability to handle surges by the power company.

Kenya has had 4 major power blackouts affecting the whole country in 2023 alone. As a result some of the drastic measures taken by the government is ration power to control outages. 

The East African country experienced a country-wide blackout on Sunday evening that lasted several hours, infuriating many people because it is the latest of at least four that have occurred this year.

Davis Chirchir, Kenya's energy minister, blamed the latest outage on an overload on a transmission line in western Kenya and promised some short-term solutions to the problem.

"We will be scheduling some minimal load-shedding," he said at a news conference, referring to specific lines such as the one that caused the blackout on Sunday.

According to Chirchir, the line, which is designed to carry 80 megawatts of electricity, was carrying 149 megawatts when it tripped, causing the entire grid to go out.

According to Chirchir, the government will construct a new transmission line in the country's west to increase grid capacity and prevent system overloads.

The new line will be funded by cash from South Korea and the African Development Bank, according to the minister, who did not provide a figure.

He also stated that the government is investing in electricity generation in order to increase reserves.

Many Kenyans were irritated by the blackout on Sunday, and they vented their rage on social media platforms such as Facebook.

The blackout also rendered two terminals at Nairobi's main airport inoperable after stand-by generators failed to activate automatically.

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