Assessing the Potential Impact of Grid-Scale Variable Renewable Energy on the Reliability of Electricity Supply in Kenya

Securing a sufficient supply of reliable and affordable electricity is a major challenge for countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), due to low current access levels, and rapid population and economic growth. This article will review application and technical modelling issues associated with generation adequacy assessment (i.e. assessing the risk of available generation being less than demand) in the context of SSA countries with significant capacities of renewable energy, with Kenya as the main case study. One major challenge in performing such studies in SSA is often availability of the necessary data on renewable resource and demand – the article will further demonstrate how useful information may be gained on the extent to which wind and hydro energy resources complement each other in Kenya, in the context of limited data availability.