KENYA ELECTRICITY GENERATING COMPANY LIMITED EFFECTIVE DESIGN
AND MANAGEMENT OF ASSETS. Paper Presented by: Jennifer Oduor 1
Slide 2 INTRODUCTION Kenya Electricity Generating Company Limited
(KenGen) is the leading electric power generation company in Kenya,
producing about 80 percent of electricity consumed in the country.
KenGen uses Hydro, geothermal, thermal, wind and currently
exploring possibilities of increasing its capacity by using solar
technology and conversion of waste to energy technologies. KenGen
has an asset base of approximately Kenya Shillings 163 Billion and
its landed property spans across the country. 2 Slide 3 LOCATION OF
POWER GENERATING FACILITIES 3 Slide 4 PICTORIAL DEFINITION OF GIS 4
Converting tables of data into such a visual form is immediately
and immensely powerful Diagram 1: Concept of Layers in GIS Slide 5
HOW KENGEN APPLIES GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION SYSTEM IN DEVELOPMENT AND
MANAGEMENT OF ASSETS 1. Geothermal Field Potential Assessment.
Generation of geothermal-based electric energy requires huge
capital investment for:- conclusive geo-scientific studies Large
amounts of Field data collected by the various independent
geo-scientific disciplines, such as, Geology, geophysics,
geochemistry, geothermal reservoir engineering and environment
departments. Data is analyzed and interpreted using GIS systems
analytical capabilities and mapping to select areas of sufficient
geothermal potential for further development. This has had a
positive financial impact on the company due to the improved
certainty of sinking productive geothermal wells. 5 Slide 6 G
EOPHYSICAL DATA : G EOLOGICAL STRUCTURES : G EOCHEMISTRY AND WELL :
T ERRAIN M ODEL 6 Slide 7 R ESULTANT M AP OF MERGING D ATA FROM THE
DIFFERENT D ISCIPLINES 7 Slide 8 2. Geothermal infrastructure
integrated Planning Geothermal infrastructure consists of: Power
stations, wells, steam gathering pipe networks, Access road
networks, brine disposal and re-injection pipe network, power
evacuation lines and water supply lines. Factors considered in
designing infrastructure include :- the terrain, the environmental
information, existing infrastructure, recommended buffer distances
between components, animal routes, property boundaries and any
protected zones among many others. Geospatial information systems
analytical and geo-processing tools makes it possible to
incorporate all the necessary inputs to optimize the design and
location of the geothermal infrastructure for KenGen. This has had
a significant positive impact in the avoidance of environmental
conflicts and financial well being of the company. This would not
be possible without the GIS system. 8 Slide 9 G EOTHERMAL I
NFRASTRUCTURE - (O LKARIA ) 9 Slide 10 Environmental Conservation,
management and Monitoring of Environmental impacts. Olkaria
Geothermal project is located within the Hells Gate national park
which prides itself with the presence of many different animal and
bird species not to mention the vegetation. KenGen is sensitive to
this reality and has adopted conservation measures to safeguard the
environment and mitigate the impact of the exploitation of the
geothermal resource within the park and other areas close to
communitys habitations. Mapping of the environmentally sensitive
areas such as steep slopes gorges, bird nesting grounds, animal
breeding grounds and the emergence of invasive species has been
continuously done. It is mandatory to comply with the conservation
regulation in the design of all the components of geothermal
exploitation such as well location, waste disposal, pipeline route
design, power plant location and general attitude within the park.
Where some damage is inevitable, clear mitigation plan must be
demonstrated to the satisfaction of the enforcing agency. 10 Slide
11 C ONFLICT PREDICTION AND MANAGEMENT WITH LOCAL COMMUNITIES (C
ASE STUDY E BURRU ) KenGen uses GIS information system to identify,
in advance, the areas of possible conflict between the company and
local communities due its operations and to plan for ways of
mitigating the effects. 11 Caption1: Caption from a Daily Newspaper
Cutting Slide 12 12 Map3: Crop damage and Long term conflict
resolution in Eburru by identifying areas that must be purchased.
Slide 13 LAND ACQUISITION KenGen uses GIS in land acquisition to
aid in providing information on the land terrain for purposes of
zoning the land to facilitate purchase negotiation decisions. For
example, recently the company had to purchase land for resettlement
purposes. As part of the resettlement package, the Company is
expected to construct houses for the Project Affected Persons
(PAPS) who are classified according to their Villages. The land had
fairly rugged terrain. GIS was used to identify suitable land for
construction of houses within the rugged terrain. Maps were created
showing the different land zones as shown in: 13 Slide 14 L AND A
CQUISITION 14 Slide 15 U SING GIS TO SELECT AREAS FOR RESETTLEMENT
OF COMMUNITIES AFFECTED BY GEOTHERMAL ACTIVITIES AT O LKARIA 15
Slide 16 BENEFITS OF ADOPTING THE USE OF GIS TECHNOLOGY One Stop
Data Shop : The GIS department has been acting as technical
library, putting volumes of GIS data onto the shelves where they
are available to all users throughout the company. Information Pool
: A key advantage of property information management using GIS is
the synergy arising from the pooling of information. A particular
benefit of GIS is the ability to integrate data from a wide range
of company sources using location as a common point of reference.
Data Credibility: If managed properly the process of data
integration will alleviate or neutralize problems of data
duplication, reduce data limitations and help to reduce data
capture costs. Data Base Management: An ability to handle changes
in features over time. GIS provides an opportunity to tailor the
database to suit different types of users. It also provides
High-quality map production. Data Security: Provision of
authority-wide access to a corporate resource Geographical analysis
of property information; Cross Relation : Each land parcel can be
related to other geographical and demographic information. Asset
Management: Users can establish what property interests are owned
in any given area, by whom, Acreage and Encumbrances if any. 16
Slide 17 CHALLENGES FACED IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF GIS TECHNOLOGY
Merging Various Interests: The various departments (like geology,
geophysics, drilling, environmental etc.) have independent systems
and of handling their data and data management soft-wares, thus
several stages of data reduction and/or reformatting before
importing into the GIS databases is a major challenge. Manual
Information: Some of the information is in hard copies (e.g. hard
copy reports, maps, hand written tables, scale-less diagrams etc)
that require digitizing, geo- referencing and extensive field
ground research. Culture Change: Lack of data sharing culture among
professionals, institutions and Government departments has been and
still is the biggest stumbling block of benefiting from vast amount
of innovative work by many great minds. Most professionals believe
that the value of data and information enhances depending on
scarcity of the information. The fact is that the information
itself is not important unless it is shared among professionals.
Justifying Investing in GIS: Quantification in monetary terms of
investment in GIS Hardware and Software to the organization is a
challenge and hence justify an increase in budget provisions going
forward. Training : There is urgent need for training more people
in GIS! 17 Slide 18 PROPOSED AREAS WHERE K EN G EN INTENDS TO APPLY
GIS TECHNOLOGY Land Administration and Management. Human Resource
Management. Company fleet management. Corporate social
responsibility management and monitoring. Power Outage prediction
& mitigation analysis 18 Slide 19 THANK YOU LISTENING TO ME !
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