Mombasa Cement’s Vipingo plant wins energy-saving award

Mombasa Cement’s Vipingo facility has won Kenya’s national award as the best energy-saving company in the country, according to The Star.

The plant has been able to save around KES121m (US$1.19m) in energy costs due to power-saving initiatives. Plant manager Koppal Chandrashekarial said they came up with ideas to save energy due to continued power shortages from Kenya Power and Lighting Co. At one time the plant lost power for 16 days, he added. 'There has been a lot of challenges, too much power interruptions, in 2016 we lost an 850kW motor,'' he said. Mr Chandrashekarial said they are current able to operate the plant at full efficiency between 750-850kW as a result of the energy-saving plan.

In the last 21 months, the plant has been able to save 1.9m units of power using the preheater. The plant manager said they plan to produce power from waste heat recovery at the stack.

Kenya’s cement industry has also been recognised for its energy-saving efforts by the Kenya Association of Manufacturers.