Rabai is a 90 MW oil power plant in Kwale, Kenya. It is operated by Rabai Power Company. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 68k homes (estimated). It ranks #18 of 34 Kenya power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2009, it is around 17 years old — relatively modern. In context, oil supplies about 10.0% of Kenya's electricity; the national grid averages 95 gCO₂/kWh (90.0% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1061214.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: Wikidata P2109 nameplate capacity; fuel: WRI source-record fuel
At 90 MW, Rabai is around the median oil plant in Kenya (83 MW). Technically it is described as Engine. Oil-fired plants burn heavy fuel oil or diesel, usually as peaking or backup capacity on islands and grids without gas pipelines; high fuel cost keeps their utilisation low.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Rabai Power Company.
This oil plant burns oil or diesel to drive turbines or reciprocating engines. It sits in a tropical savanna climate (Köppen As) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 3.9°S — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
This site has effectively no heating season (tropical/equatorial climate), so winter heat loss is not the driver here. The thermal concern shifts to year-round process heat and humidity/heat-driven corrosion of hot equipment.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in an aggressive, high-corrosion environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C5 — Very high), with marine salt corrosion the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #3 largest oil power plant of 10 in Kenya by capacity.
Kenya has 10 oil power plants in this dataset, together about 828 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -3.9334, 39.5626 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Rabai is a 90 MW source-record oil power plant in Kwale, Kenya, commissioned in 2009.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 67,577 homes (estimated).
Rabai is operated by Rabai Power Company.
