K&M is pleased to welcome Mr. Nicholas LaBriola to the K&M team as Manager, Technical Services.

Mr. Nicholas LaBriola is a Manager on the Technical Services team with extensive experience in engineering and commissioning in the Power, Nuclear, and Oil, Gas, & Chemical industry. Prior to K&M Advisors, Mr. LaBriola was a Mechanical Design and Commissioning Engineer at Bechtel focusing on power plant system design, equipment sizing and technical specification development for Nuclear, Natural Gas, and Petrochemical plants. He worked to develop technical procedures for system and equipment testing and commissioning as an on-site system commissioning engineer. He possesses a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland-College Park and is a licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.) in the state of Maryland.

K&M’s President, Alfonso Guzman, joined DUAGA’s recent webinar, “El Futuro Energético llega de Nuestros Muelles”, to discuss and share insights on hydrogen economy.

More details can be found here.

K&M is excited to announce its development and launch of a database and switching economics model to assist stakeholders in understanding the small-scale LNG market. To learn more about the database, follow the link here or contact LNGdatabase@km-advisorsllc.com for a demo.

Reflecting on the successes of 2021, K&M is excited to see what 2022 has in store! To read more about K&M’s 2021 highlights, click here.

K&M’s President, Alfonso Guzman, and Managing Director of Transaction Services, Derek Martin, joined Poten & Partners and Abrace this past Friday in a webinar to discuss LNG to Power opportunities in Brazil. Mr.Guzman and Mr. Martin discussed the impact of the addition of wind and solar on gas-fired plant’s dispatch risk and how to manage this risk. Anneliese Gegenheimer, Manager of Transaction Services and Kathleen Cohen, Strategic Services Analyst, supported this workshop with analytical work.

Please contact info@km-advisorsllc.com if you would like a copy of the webinar content.

K&M Advisors is pleased to announce the publication of The Caribbean Water Study by the Inter-American Development Bank. This study will serve as a reference document and a key guide for prioritizing improvements needed by water utilities in the Caribbean. This study was co-authored by Nils Janson, Lindsay N. Burkhard, and Sara Gabriela Jones and edited by Evan Cayetano and Corinne Cathala. Special thanks to Wayne Williams, Sara-Jade Govia, and Cashman Adrian for their valuable insights. Also, the team greatly appreciates the outstanding efforts made by the following water utilities in providing data and offering helpful observations: Barbados Water Authority in Barbados, Belize Water Service Ltd. in Belize, Dominica Water and Sewerage Company Ltd. in Dominica, Guyana Water Inc. in Guyana, National Water and Sewerage Authority in Grenada, National Water Commission in Jamaica, N.V. Surinaamsche Waterleiding Maatschappij in Suriname, Water Authority – Cayman in CaymanIslands, Water and Sewerage Authority in Trinidad and Tobago, Water and Sewerage Corporation in  Bahamas, Water and Sewerage Company Inc. in Saint Lucia.

To read the complete publication, click here.

For Immediate Release
21 October 2021

Bethesda, MD – K&M Advisors has been engaged by the Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC (KenGen) on behalf of the Government of Kenya and the country’s energy sector to conduct a feasibility study for natural gas power generation in Kenya. While Kenya does not have its own domestic natural gas resources, the study will examine the potential to create a domestic natural gas market for power generation and industrial use via importation with the aim to help diversify the country’s energy mix, improve energy security, reduce the cost of electricity and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The feasibility study will examine the technical, economic, financial, and environmental and social feasibility of 1) the development and operation of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Mombasa, 2) conversion of Kenya’s 10 existing heavy fuel oil (HFO) and kerosene power plants to natural gas and 3) the development of a new natural gas power generation plant in and around Mombasa. The study is organized into seventeen tasks that will be implemented over a 10 to 12 month period.

K&M will start with assessing the LNG demand from converting existing power plants to natural gas, building a new power plant, and displacing HFO or diesel used by industries. The study will then identify and cost viable LNG sourcing, shipping, import terminal, logistics and transportation options. Various LNG import terminal sites in Mombasa and floating and onshore configurations will be analyzed. K&M will assess whether natural gas sourced from an LNG import terminal in Mombasa could produce electricity at a lower cost than HFO or kerosene. LNG transport via LNG trailers or rail will also be considered.

The study will review contractual arrangements for implementing the project, including contracts for LNG or gas offtake from power plants, LNG or gas transport, LNG import terminal development and operations, and LNG supply ex-ship. The K&M team will also analyze how to procure the various components of the LNG supply chain competitively. In parallel, K&M will evaluate the feasibility of converting the existing HFO and kerosene plants to natural gas as well as construction of a greenfield natural gas plant.

K&M President Alfonso Guzman commented: “We are extremely pleased to start another engagement with KenGen and use our team’s extensive experience on LNG-to-Power projects to assist Kenya in finding a viable solution for introducing natural gas to Kenya’s generation matrix”.

K&M’s team includes experts from COWI, Lisbon Group, POWER Engineers, Environmental Resources Management (ERM), TripleOK Law, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), Ramani, Rock Link, and PAA.

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If you would like to learn more about this topic, please contact info@km-advisorsllc.com.

K&M is pleased to announce that in conjunction with the Inter-American Development Bank and The World Bank, it assessed the impact of Covid on more than 20 water utilities in Latin America and the Caribbean. This paper published by the Inter-American Development Bank, within the framework of a consultancy financed by the Swiss Embassy in Colombia-Cooperación Económica y Desarrollo (SECO), explains some unexpected results of this assessment.

This paper was co-authored by Nils Janson, Managing Director of Policy and Regulation, and Laura Bulbena. The co-authors worked with editors, Maria Eduarda Gouvêa Berto, Keisuke Sasaki, Javier Garcia Merino, and Julio Cesar Aguilera Wilches. Special thanks to Corinne Cathala, Evan Cayetano, and Maria Navia for helping convince the utilities to provide data. Also, the team greatly appreciates the insights provided by Anamaría Camacho López, and the contributions and comments of Carmen Yee Batista, P.E. and Berenice Flores Arias Uijtewaal of The World Bank.

Click here to read the full assessment.

Continuing K&M’s history in providing superior technical and financial expertise in the solar energy industry, K&M is pleased to announce two of its newest projects advising on both floating and concentrated solar energy projects.

K&M was recently contracted by a development bank to provide a global market assessment on floating solar projects and the potential development of a pipeline of such projects. This market assessment will expand across Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and Central Asia, but will primarily identify key markets in Africa and Asia. K&M will also suggest potential business models for the floating storage projects.

In Chile, K&M was contracted by a private investment fund to advise on a 210-megawatt (MW) solar project that combined concentrated solar power (CSP) and photovoltaic (PV) technologies. The 100 MW PV plant and the 110 MW CSP plant are now in operation. The private investor client engaged K&M to perform both technical and market due-diligence reviews, with the major focus on the 110 MW CSP power generation facility, first of its kind in Latin America.

As the demand for solar energy increases, K&M is prepared to provide expert level advising services on a variety of solar projects, including but not limited to concentrated and floating solar technologies.

Reflecting on this year’s Earth Day and the White House’s Leaders Summit on Climate, the world is trending towards cleaner and sustainable energy. While the most commonly known renewable energy technologies include solar PV, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric technologies, another energy source is gaining much attention. Although Hydrogen is not new, the way in which the energy and transportation industries use this abundant element is changing.

Several members of K&M’s staff attended the Hydrogen Congress for Latin America & the Caribbean Conference (H2LAC) recently and participated in some sessions that explored creating a market for Hydrogen, bankable Hydrogen power projects, and creating national and regional Hydrogen roadmaps. Kathleen Cohen, Analyst from K&M’s Strategic Practice commented, “Countries in LAC like Brazil, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago are making roadmaps and investments to develop their Hydrogen economies. They are prioritizing Green Hydrogen and hope to use it to decarbonize their chemical, power, and transportation sectors as well as create Hydrogen export capabilities.” Green Hydrogen is becoming increasingly popular because it is created using renewable energy, versus the traditional methods of using coal or other fossil fuels, which in turn produces Grey Hydrogen. Senior Analyst in the Policy and Regulation Practice, Lindsay Burkhard, mirrors this emphasis on Green Hydrogen, but also notes that “Blue Hydrogen also presents much promise for achieving energy transition goals” in the region.

Since a modern and greatly expanded Hydrogen energy industry is just at its beginning stages, K&M is dedicated to being a leader in the industry and will aim to provide expertise and insight into the world of Hydrogen. A new initiative that will launch in May is K&M’s Hydrogen Club, which invites clients and prospective clients to explore Hydrogen from the basic level, to exploring existing and future technologies, market trends, and investing opportunities. K&M’s Hydrogen Club will foster a creative and collaborative learning environment which seeks to increase clients’ knowledge in Hydrogen energy.