Kamau’s 38 year career with the Army Corps of Engineers includes more than a decade as National Hydropower Business Line Manager at Corps Headquarters. During this time, he was responsible for the program’s strategic direction, policy, and infrastructure management. In 2010 he directed development of the Corps’ Hydropower Modernization Initiative, a 20-year asset management strategy to assess power plant equipment reliability and determine replacement and rehabilitation needs. He also developed policy for non-federal hydropower development for Corps non-powered dams.

Prior to this, Kamau spent more than 20 years in the Corps’ Northwestern Division office in Portland, Oregon. As the Technical Manager in the division’s Hydropower Analysis Center, he led a team of engineers and economists that performed power system analysis studies involving hydropower operations and power plant rehabilitation. He also oversaw hydropower cost-benefit analysis. This included use of the PROSYM model, a complex system that analyzes electric power systems and generation.

Kamau also performed annual planning and reservoir refill studies stemming from the Columbia River Treaty and the Pacific Northwest Coordination Agreement. He conducted economic evaluation on hydropower projects and performed cost analyses on hydropower and thermal power systems.