This is why you had no power
BY NAIROBI NEWS REPORTER
Nearly half of the country was plunged into darkness Thursday afternoon after an electrical fault occurred in Juja substation affecting Nairobi, Mount Kenya and Coastal areas.
In a statement, Kenya Power explained that the major blackout started at 4:33pm and promised that its technical team was working tirelessly to restore power.
“The outage occurred following a fault in the bulk supply transmission system at Juja Substation in Nairobi,” read the statement.
The power distributor added that only North Rift, Central Rift and West Kenya areas have not been affected by the fault as they are served mainly from Turkwel and Sondu Miriu hydro sources.
“Our technical teams are working to rectify the situation and restore supply to the affected. We highly regret the inconveniences to our customers,” concluded the statement.
According to a global energy report published in January 2015, Kenyan households and factories are plunged into darkness for an average of 25 days every year due to blackouts.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) blamed the blackouts on Kenya Power’s dilapidated grid network, forcing investors and families to invest in diesel-powered standby generators and solar backup power systems respectively.
