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Kissi County, Kenya Microgrids

Current status, energy mix, organizations, suppliers, equipment, controls, reported specifications, and project updates—with source-level citations.

CoverageDetailed public record
Named organizations6
System facts15
Sources reviewed10
Evidence reviewed2026-07-20

The database label misspells Kisii County as 'Kissi' and appears to compress Powerhive's multi-village western Kenya portfolio into one project. Powerhive's initial four-village pilot totaled 80 kW, while a later technical market study lists six named Kisii systems totaling 100.25 kW, including a 47.25 kW Barane site that likely explains—but does not conclusively prove—the legacy 47 kW figure. The company subsequently expanded across Kisii and neighboring Nyamira using solar PV, batteries, smart meters, cloud controls, and mobile-money prepayment.

Research status
Portfolio with documented operating sites, but not one 47 kW plant. Powerhive operated a four-village pilot for more than two years before receiving a 25-year generation-and-distribution license in February 2015. A REPP case-study snapshot reports 24 operating mini-grids totaling 0.9 MW and serving 24,806 people, and 2023 field reporting described 23 stations serving roughly 7,000 homesteads in Kisii and Nyamira. Powerhive's current corporate site says it has deployed more than 30 off-grid sites since 2013, but does not provide a site-by-site 2026 availability list. The exact present status of each original village system is therefore not independently verified.
Historical classification
Community
Reported capacity
See component specifications
Coordinates
-0.67733, 34.77960
Evidence note: “Every company” cannot be proven from public material alone. This page lists every organization found in the recovered record and reviewed sources, preserves unknown roles, and explicitly marks undisclosed controller or equipment details.
Report missing evidenceResearch methodology

Project delivery

Who was involved in Kissi County, Kenya Microgrids?

6 publicly identified organizations. Where a recovered source named a participant without explaining its work, the role remains explicitly unspecified.

Organization

Enel Green Power

Lead investor in the announced 2015 scale-up vehicle, with Powerhive as the minority partner; the 100-village target was a plan rather than a completed-asset count. [5]

Organization

Energy Regulatory Commission / Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority

Kenyan regulator that granted and now records Powerhive's generation-and-distribution license for Kisii and Nyamira. [3][4]

Organization

First Solar

Provided financial and technical backing and advanced thin-film PV modules for the initial pilot program. [2]

Organization

Powerhive

Publicly named participant; role not specified in the recovered record [1]

Organization

Powerhive / Powerhive East Africa / Cloverfield Energy Services Ltd

Developer, licensed generator/distributor, technology supplier, and portfolio operator; the related legal names appear in licensing and financing sources. [2][3][4][6]

Organization

Renewable Energy Performance Platform

Approved a $3 million results-based financing facility in May 2018 for the broader Powerhive portfolio. [6]

System evidence

Energy mix, capacity, and specifications

Values can describe different project phases, generation sources, storage systems, or other components. Source citations are attached to each figure so discrepancies remain visible.

KW Solar
47 [1]
Initial pilot portfolio
Four villages, 80 kW total, serving more than 1,500 people after more than two years of pilot operation as of April 2015 [2]
Named Kisii systems in technical market study
Kirwa C 10 kW, Mtangamano 21 kW, Bogeka 10 kW, Mokomoni 1.5 kW, Nyamondo 10.5 kW, and Barane 47.25 kW; 100.25 kW combined in the study's table. This later six-site boundary should not be substituted for the earlier four-site 80 kW pilot. [7]
Licensed ceiling and geography
3 MW authorized solar-PV generation/distribution capacity across Kisii and Nyamira under license GD.01.15, granted February 16, 2015 for 25 years. This is a regulatory authorization, not evidence that 3 MW was installed. [4]
Expansion target versus reported achievement
The 2015 investment plan targeted 100 villages, 1 MW, roughly 20,000 households, and 90,000 people. REPP later reported 24 operating grids totaling 0.9 MW and 24,806 people gaining first access at its reporting snapshot. [5][6]
Pilot energy mix
Powerhive described the initial systems as 100% renewable; later portfolio descriptions identify solar PV with distributed battery storage but do not publish a measured annual renewable fraction for every site. [2][10]

Controls and hardware

Equipment and controller details

Manufacturer and model are shown only when a source names them. Generic descriptions are not converted into guessed product assignments.

01

Solar modules

First Solar

First Solar supplied advanced PV modules to the pilot. The reviewed sources do not disclose module series, site-by-site module counts, inverter vendors, or final array sizes beyond the listed site capacities. [2]

02

Smart metering

Powerhive — Asali

Customer meters support remote monitoring and prepaid electricity purchases, including mobile-money payment. [2][9]

03

Control and operations software

Powerhive — Honeycomb and SWARM

Honeycomb provides cloud-based monitoring and control; SWARM supports site assessment and deployment. Public sources do not publish controller hardware, communications redundancy, dispatch logic, or cybersecurity architecture. [2]

04

Battery storage

Model not publicly disclosed

Powerhive and REPP describe distributed batteries as part of the mini-grid design. Chemistry, manufacturer, power, energy, usable depth of discharge, and replacement history are not disclosed for the named Kisii sites. [6][10]

Technical record

Architecture, performance, and project updates

Concise technical facts, milestones, operating results, and later developments. Dated notes distinguish historical design claims from current evidence.

  • Portfolio-boundary correction

    The legacy 47 kW value aligns closely with Barane's 47.25 kW listing, but the record name refers to a county-wide portfolio. Because no source explicitly equates the database record with Barane, that correspondence remains a likely explanation rather than a confirmed alias. [7]

  • Commercial model

    The systems use smart meters, cloud supervision, and prepaid mobile payments so customers can buy small increments of electricity and the operator can monitor village assets remotely. [2][9]

  • Reported development impact

    REPP reports 24,806 people receiving first access and 875 cumulative tonnes of CO2-equivalent avoided at its snapshot. The latter should not be read as a current annual savings value or independently audited performance for Kisii County alone. [6]

  • Latest located field evidence

    A May 2023 Kenyan report described 23 Powerhive stations across Kisii and Nyamira serving about 7,000 homesteads, while a 2023 university field account described continued smart-metered service and customer experience at Miwani. Neither source provides a 2026 site-level availability table. [8][9]

  • Open evidence gaps

    No reconciled commissioning list, present battery inventory, site-level annual generation, outage duration, losses, tariffs, collected revenue, or measured fuel displacement through July 2026 was located. The public record also does not reconcile the original four pilot villages, the six-site technical table, and the later 23/24-grid portfolio snapshots. [7][6][8]

Provenance

10 sources

Primary owner, government, university, supplier, and engineering sources are preferred. Archived references preserve claims whose original pages moved or disappeared.

  1. [1]
    Recovered Microgrid Projects record

    Internet Archive · Archived source · captured 2021-04-20

  2. [2]
  3. [3]
  4. [4]
    Energy and Petroleum Statistics Report 2021

    Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority of Kenya · Primary source

  5. [5]
  6. [6]
    Case study: Powerhive

    Renewable Energy Performance Platform · Primary source

  7. [7]
    Kenya Mini-Grid Market Study

    Technical University of Denmark · Primary source

  8. [8]
    Solar energy lights up Nyamira's dark village

    The Standard · Secondary research

  9. [9]
  10. [10]
    Powerhive

    Powerhive · Primary source

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