According to reports, East Africa Portland Cement Company (EAPCC) is planning to set up a KES800 million power generation plant in Kenya. The 4-MW plant will run on waste gases generated by EAPCC’s Athi River cement facility and is expected to cut the company’s annual electricity costs by approximately KES500 million. Construction is scheduled to commence in September 2014 and the unit will take around one year to complete. Internal savings will fund around 20 – 25% of the project, while the rest will come from commercial loans.
EAPCC currently consumes around 13 MW of electricity, which is supplied from the national grid, to power its cement production facilities. Kephar Tande, MD of EAPCC, stated that the new power plant’s output would translate to about 40% of EAPCC’s total energy requirements. Furthermore, the new facility is expected to help tackle the problem of frequent power outages.
EAPCC hopes to expand production capacity from a current 1.3 million tpa to 2 million tpa by 2017. EAPCC is planning a new KES15 billion clinker plant in Bisil, Kajiado and a second cement plant in the Nooleleshuani area of Kajiado. Tande said cost management is a key concern for the company and energy is an area that will be focused upon as operations expand.
