Suit blocks work on Sh20bn power plant

Work on a 50MW geothermal power plant at Ol Karia has stalled due to a court case against the Public Procurement Administrative Review Board.

The Sh20 billion tender was awarded to a consortium made up of Rentco East Africa Ltd, Lantech Africa Ltd and Toshiba Corporation of Japan on August 21.

A consortium comprising OJSC Power Machines, Transcentury and Civicon that lost the bid claimed there were irregularities in the award of the tender and appealed to the Public Procurement Administrative Board.

The board, however, upheld the award of the tender, prompting the consortium to challenge it in court.

The winning consortium says the case has disrupted plans to start the project.

“We were ready to start but this case came up. So we have to wait for the judicial review,” Rentco Chief Executive Robert Nyasimi told the Press in Nairobi.

He said their international co-bidders had extensive experience in geothermal power projects in various countries.

“Toshiba, for example, has 248MW geothermal steam turbines in Japan,” said Mr Nyasimi.

He also said JFMPE Corporation of the US was a technical advisor on the Olkaria project.

“They are backed by at least seven globally known consultants under Global Power Solutions which has done projects that range from 10-1,500MW in New Zealand, Argentina, Costa Rica, Germany, US, Indonesia, Philippines and Nicaragua,” he said.

Court documents dated September 2, 2015 show that the Transcentury group wants  KenGen stopped from signing a contract with the Rentco group.

It says the winner was only incorporated in 2012 and therefore could not demonstrate financial ability to undertake the project.