NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 19 – The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) has rolled out an energy monitoring system in the tea processing operations of its managed tea factories to facilitate energy efficiency in tea production.
The programme, currently being piloted at Itumbe and Kiru tea factories under the KTDA Foundation in collaboration with a long-term partner, the German Development Agency GIZ, seeks to enhance energy usage and improve sustainability across tea production.
KTDA Foundation General Manager Sudi Matara said the agency is looking forward to leveraging energy-efficient systems to lower the cost of operations and bring down carbon emissions as a way to lessen climate change.
“We are here to launch the Smart Energy Management System programme that will help us address energy-related costs. If we are able to manage our costs, then that is a gain to the farmer,” Matara spoke while assessing the programme at the Kiru tea factory.
“We are also looking at issues of sustainability and carbon emissions. One of the things that we are doing as an organization is decarbonizing our operations across the tea value chain,” he added.
KTDA noted that this will be the first system to be established in tea factories to manage operational costs through energy efficiency and automation.
“By cutting unnecessary costs tied to inefficient data collection processes, KTDA has created a more cost-effective and streamlined tea manufacturing ecosystem,” KTDA stated.
“The system will enable factories to track their energy consumption electronically and generate data on key metrics such as the amount of biomass used in tea production and the amount of steam being generated by factories.”
KTDA further noted that the system will be able to measure pressure and save the data online for access by the management of the factories, allowing them to make decisions on the operations of the factories.
Kiru Tea Factory Chairman Chege Kirundi said the factory was glad to be taking part in the pilot phase of the programme, with the factory looking forward to the energy savings accruing from the pilot scheme.
“This is a pilot scheme focused on energy saving, energy saving is money. We spend a lot of money on energy for withering in our factory operations, hence the launch of this initiative which we are hopeful will prove beneficial to the farmers in the long run,” said Kirundi.
