National Energy Policy - Final Draft - 14 Nov 2013

of 33MW. Feasibility studies are on-going at 14 other sites and will be expanded to cover otherareas and the results used for capital mobilization for development of the sites. As at 2013, onlya few schemes had been developed as stand-alone systems or to feed to the national grid.3. By the end of 2013, more than 260 small hydropower sites had been identified but the largestnumber of sites are found in the Tana River drainage basin, mainly in the counties of Kirinyaga,Muranga, Meru and Tharaka Nithi.4. Figure 3.2 is a map showing the locations of small hydropower sites as appraised by MoE (dotsin green colour) as well as a summary compilation from various studies (dots in red colour). Ascan be seen, the potential for small hydropower sites is mainly located in counties that havehigh population density and high energy demand.Figure 3.2: Small Hydropower Schemes3.3.2.2 Challenges1. The upsurge in demand for electrical energy from 2004 has revealed an exciting potential forgrowth in and exploitation of the small hydros subsector. This has led to emerging challengessuch as:(a) Destruction of catchment areas threatens long term viability of small hydro power projects.(b) Inadequate financial resources and technical personnel for carrying out feasibility studiesand development of sites.(c) Inadequate hydrological data.50 NATIONAL ENERGY POLICY FINAL DRAFT NOVEMBER 2013