Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya will have to wait longer before they can trade in electricity due to delays in completing the needed infrastructure.

Rwandan officials said that contractors are yet to complete works on substations and high-voltage power lines that would facilitate the power trading plan, which is part of the Northern Corridor Infrastructure Projects. The three countries had proposed to start trading in power by 2015, a deadline that was pushed to April this year.

But chief executive of Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Ltd Erias Kiyemba told The EastAfrican that the partner states will not meet the new deadline due to challenges such as delays by the contractor.   

“We are behind schedule…. The transmission lines are not yet complete because of delays with the contractor, both on the Ugandan and Rwandan side,” said Mr Kiyemba. “Even if we had finished ours, the Rwanda side is also facing challenges…they haven’t finished theirs, and power can’t jump!”

While Kigali has completed a high voltage — 220kv — interconnection electric grid transmission line to tap power from western Uganda, the Birembo/Shango sub-stations are behind schedule.

“The Kagitumba-Mirama-Shango line was completed in October last year,” a statement from Rwanda’s Ministry of East African Affairs notes.

A source from the Ministry said that they plan to complete the sub-stations by October.

“We experienced some delays in our Birembo /Shango sub-stations, but we are now at 80 per cent complete,” he said.

Kigali has asked Isolux Ingenieria, a Spain-based engineering firm contracted to build the power lines and sub-stations to expedite the project.

The EastAfrican could not independently establish why Isolux had failed to beat the deadline. However, the government official said that the firm, which also operates in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania, was overwhelmed.

According to the World Bank, Rwanda experiences the highest number of power outages in the region — averaging 14 blackouts per month. The worst load shedding occurs from June, and worsens in August as water levels at the generation stations drop due to a dry spell.

Burundi and Tanzania both experience 12 blackouts per month while Uganda experience 11. Kenya experiences an average of seven blackouts a month.

As alternatives to hydro power, Kigali uses expensive fuel-generated electricity, which currently accounts for 40 per cent of the country’s energy generation capacity, methane gas from Lake Kivu and small solar plants that feed into the national grid.

Importing electricity would, therefore scale down the heavy use of fuel-generated power . The country plans to import at least 15MW from Uganda, 30MW from Kenya and an additional 400MW from Ethiopia.

Additional reporting by Julius Barigaba, Christopher Kidanka and Kennedy Senelwa.