KENYA Power (KPLC), Kenya’s national electricity producer, announced on Sunday morning that power has been restored across most of the country following a nationwide blackout on Saturday evening.
In a statement on Twitter, issued at 6:25pm local time on Saturday, the power utility said that “we have lost bulk power supply to various parts of the country due to a system disturbance”.
According to Kenyan media reports, certain areas were still experiencing power interruption despite a 12am update by KPLC announcing countrywide power restoration.
The power utility, in a statement on its website, explained why power is restored in phases during an unplanned power outage.
It noted that prioritised issues involve checking the system and repairing the damage to power plants, transmission lines and substations. They later restore power to critical services such as hospitals, police, fire, water and communication systems.
The power utility focuses on restoring power to areas with a high concentration of customers within the shortest time possible. Afterwards, restoring power to smaller neighbourhoods and individual customers.
“During unplanned power outages, our goal is to restore power as quickly and safely as possible for customers. While we work to find and fix the outage, we also provide customers with an estimate of when they can expect power to be restored,” the power utility said in a statement.
“In some cases, crews can restore power sooner than what we have estimated. In severe weather, the cause of the power outage may be difficult to locate or access or there may be several problems so the repairs may take longer.”
According to Deutsche Welle News, while widespread blackouts are relatively common in East Africa’s biggest economy, they do not usually affect the entire country of 53 million people.
A notable exception was in January last year when a high-voltage transmission line connecting the capital to a hydroelectric dam broke, causing a nationwide power outage.
Later that month, three senior managers of Kenya Power were charged with sabotage and negligence.