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Work starts on Rwanda’s 27MW power plant
Jabana power station in Kigali, which is run by Eletrogaz. The country has for the past two years conducted studies on rivers in the country that can produce energy. Photo/FILE
Posted Saturday, January 10 2009 at 10:45
According to Mr Butare, more than 330 dam sites have been identified and construction on 25 of them is already in progress.
When completed, in about 45 months’ time, the Nyabarongo plant will be the largest domestic hydro power plant in the country, producing almost half the power currently being utilised.
Other sources said a 62 MW power project in Rusumo whose construction will star this year and involving Tanzania and Burundi, will boost Rwanda’s efforts to meet its energy demands.
John Milenge, managing director of Electrogaz, said recently that 86 per cent of Rwanda’s energy sources emanates from biomass, whereas 11 per cent is from hydrocarbons and 3 per cent is principally sourced from electricity power.
About 42 per cent of the electricity in Rwanda is produced by diesel generators.
On the other hand, 55 per cent of national electric energy is produced from hydropower sources. This equals an installed capacity of 42.8 MW. The national hydro power plants have been rehabilitated and water level management has improved to reach almost the maximum production capacity.
Rwanda is currently importing around 12 MW from Sinalec, a regional tripartite power producer involving parties from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The government is implementing a planned increase in generating capacity from 60MW of installed capacity to 165 MW by 2012 for domestic production.
Some of the projects include 26 MW from micro hydropower plants and 20 MW from a heavy fuel oil plant which commenced in December 2008.
Already, some 250KW generated from the Kigali solar plant are already operational.
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