Resumption of work on at KenGen’s Olkaria V Power Plant After an Accident scare

In the wake of a brief disruption over the weekend, commissioning tests have resumed at KenGen’s Olkaria V power plant . Undertakings at Olkaria V power plant had been on hold since Friday evening after an accident at the power plant had left 10 workers injured. Unverified reports inferred a steam pipe burst as cause to the injuries. However, the official statement from KenGen declared that the accident was caused by a stampede. The statement read as follows: “The incident occurred on Friday, July 12th, 2019 at about 4 pm, while the team was preparing one of the units in order to step up power from 43MW to 65MW. The incident occurred after the operation of high-pressure safety safeguards. The safety system operated as designed but in the process, this triggered a stampede among the workers in the vicinity, some of who sustained injuries and were rushed to hospital in Naivasha,” read the statement by Kengen. A report by KenGen further said that 9 employees had been treated and discharged, whereas only one is currently undergoing treatment at a Hospital in Nairobi . The KSh40 billion Olkaria V power plant is in its last stages of construction. It was commissioned by President Uhuru Kenyatta in April 2017 . The plant is expected to generate an additional 165MW to the national grid once it is in operation.