The Lake Turkana Wind Project will be the largest wind farm in Africa, and in the world, when completed.
When operating at full capacity, Lake Turkana Wind Power will add 310 MW of renewable generation capacity to Kenya's grid. This output from the wind farm will be enough to power more than 1 million Kenyan households. The LTWP Project represents one of the biggest single private investment in Kenya's history.
The farm sits on 40 000 acres of land in an area that receives steady winds throughout the year.
This remote, desert-like environment is inhabited by about 10 nomadic tribes, with the closest village 40 km away, and was selected as the project site following an extensive survey of the region that focused on environmental, social and sustainability, technology and commercial considerations.
Logistical complications were anticipated as being one of the biggest challenges to the project owing to the high volume of components requiring transportation from the Port of Mombasa to the project site, approximately 1 200 km away.
As part of the WorleyParsons Group, Advisian helped to provide overall project management, engineering review and construction management services for the Lake Turkana Wind Power Project.
The Lake Turkana Wind Power Project spans an area of 160 km2 and the project scope included 365 wind turbines of 850 kW each, an electric grid collection system and a high voltage substation, upgrades to 210 km of existing road, an internal site road network and a 160-man self-contained permanent village.
WorleyParsons RSA's project management services include overseeing the total schedule, cost and quality of work as well as supervising and coordinating the five main contractors on the project.
WorleyParsons' project management team, led by Stefan van Niekerk, is made up of a core group of project leaders, supplemented by professional personnel sourced locally in Kenya as part of the company's localisation philosophy. 43% of the 33-strong team is from WorleyParsons' South African office, 33% from the Nairobi office, and the balance of 24% comprises the support staff from Kenya.
The team is split between WorleyParsons' Nairobi project office and the Turkana site office, which is located at a distance of 10 hours by road in a 4x4 from Nairobi, or 1,5 hours by chartered flight.
The team as a whole performed commendably by being flexible in their roles and adaptable to difficult situations and new challenges. WorleyParsons is particularly proud of the Lake Turkana Project Team for their passion, excitement and genuine positivity in a very difficult environment. The Africa Location has become an integral part of the Middle East and Africa (MEA) Region and boasts a dynamic team in a location with substantial opportunity.
As at March 2017:
All 365 turbines erected and 100 MW of power was ready to be delivered (120 turbines fully connected)
- 350 km roads 100% completed
- 160-man village 100% completed
- Substation ready for energisation
- Collector network 75% completed
- Total project man hours: 6 594 314
- LTFR = 0.27 vs target 2.5
The safety milestone achievements were largely due to a high level of alertness and awareness among all team members through programmes such as SAZ and Good 2 Go.
The Lake Turkana Wind Power project has achieved many milestones, the latest being the safety performance on the Vesta's Contract, installing the wind turbines. The 365 turbines were erected in 362 days by Vestas through their Greek sub-contractor Anipsotiki. Vestas has since achieved 758 days without any Lost Work Day Case Incidents as of 28th February 2017.
The 310 MW turbines, which are attached to 52 metre rotors, are hoisted on towers stretching up to 44 metres high. The Vestas turbines are systematically being tested for power generation and 120 turbines
have been declared ready for energisation in January. By managing to hoist these turbines safely and within the stipulated time, the team has not only achieved a technological feat, but also navigated through a logistical challenge of getting all the turbines to the site, 1 200 km from the port of Mombasa.
The biggest contribution from WorleyParsons to this project is the difference made to the lives of Kenyans and specifically local tribes. We had a strong focus on localisation and social upliftment to ensure that the surrounding communities benefited from this project, and placed particular emphasis on health and safety awareness as most of the local workforce has not been exposed to any health and safety practices.
This sentiment was captured by Krish Iyer, Regional Managing Director, MEA: "Having visited the site last month, I am truly humbled by the work that the project team has put into Lake Turkana. A project of this size and scale will undoubtedly come with challenges so I am particularly proud of the work that the team has achieved on the project to date – our amazing people doing amazing things!"
The LTWP Project afforded us the opportunity to expose not only the local engineers from Kenya to a project of this magnitude, but also some of our junior engineers, which will stand us in good stead for future wind power projects.
As part of the project scope, a 208 km road was built which provided new possibilities to all communities living in the area. Travelling to the site by road from Nairobi previously took around two days and now the site can now be reached in 10 hours.
Current status of the project
Despite some logistical, climatic and community challenges, we have delivered our scope of work to date for the LTWP Project within the stipulated timeframe and budget.
Lake Turkana Wind Power is expected to complete the installation process of the full wind farm by June 2017. The power will be evacuated and transmitted to the national grid through a double circuit 400kV, 438km transmission line that is currently being constructed by Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco).
