Rwanda stands to reap major benefits from a planned regional electricity power exchange line from Olkaria in Kenya to Birembo in Southern Province, through Uganda.

The 400KV electricity transmission line is one of the major Northern Corridor Integration projects being coordinated by Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya and is aimed at accelerating regional development by pooling and sharing a scarce resource, electricity.

Last week, the three partners commenced a search for a consultant to undertake a feasibility study of the project expected to remove bottlenecks to electricity power distribution in the region.

Christian Rwakunda, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Infrastructure (Minifra), said the line will interconnect Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda to allow power transmission capacity of over 500MW and ensure reliable supply in the region as well as operational and technical performance of cooperation through sharing resources.

"It’s an important project for us,” Rwakunda told The Sunday Times.

Two weeks ago, the three allies also hit the market in search of a contractor to undertake construction of the proposed over 700km Eldoret-Kampala-Kigali refined petroleum products pipeline whose completion is expected before 2018.

The partners expect the consultant to assess the energy needs of the three countries as well as their import and export potential with a focus on the market situation analysis of the next 20 years.

From a modicum of power resources, the allies want to build what they call the East African Power Pool, from which they hope to even export to other countries with electricity constraints.

Experts say that while it’s unimaginable in the short run, the goal is achievable in the long term given the number of ongoing big power generation projects in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.

Rwanda’s story  

Power constraints continue to cut the ground under Rwanda’s investment attraction programs and despite several ongoing energy projects in the country, the country is yet to generate enough electricity to meet growing demand.

In a bid to bolster the country’s limited power generation, currently at about 110MW, Rwanda plans to start importing electricity from neigbouring countries.

"We have an understanding with Ethiopia from where we expect to start getting 400MW by 2017,” says Tom Rwahama, the regional energy projects coordinator at Minifra.

Rwahama also revealed that negotiations for a 30MW Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between Rwanda and Kenya are also in advanced stages. Final technical documents have already been drafted and the deal now awaits the legal opinions of the Attorney Generals of the concerned countries.

"The PPA is expected to be signed during the Heads of State summit expected to take place on October 8, 2014 in Kampala,” Rwahama said. The Sunday Time understands that the parties are still haggling over the prices at which Rwanda will buy from Kenya.

But in order to deliver electricity to Rwanda’s grid, Kenya must also settle with Uganda through whose territory the transmission line runs, under a ‘wheeling agreement’ that addresses Uganda’s benefits as a country "in between.”

"Once everything is settled, we expect the transaction to start effective June 2015,” says Monique Mukaruliza, the National Coordinator of the projects under the tripartite initiative.

Upgrading to 400KV

However, experts note that Rwanda cannot immediately receive the planned power supplies from both Ethiopia and Kenya because the current capacity of the transmission lines is nearly overloaded hence can’t support the transmission of the anticipated load. "That calls for a need to up-grade the transmission line to meet that capacity,” says Rwahama.

However, to settle the question of "upgrade of the system from what step to which,” the tripartite leaders agreed to harmonize their transmission lines capacity using Kenya’s level as the standard.

"Kenya’s transmission lines have a 400KV capacity and it made more sense for Uganda and Rwanda to step up their own and have harmonised capacity,” explains Rwahama.

However, the decision is subject to expert analysis and whoever will be contracted to carry out the feasibility study should advise the allies whether they actually need the 400KV line or one with lower capacity.

That question will be answered in six months’ time when the feasibility study is expected to be completed.

"If the study is positive and supports a 400KV upgrade, the line should be in place by 2018,” Rwahama said.

That would mean; Rwanda should be getting ready to upgrade its transmission lines from the current 110 to 400KV.

But in the meantime, Minifra is already acting on a presidential directive to upgrade the line to 220KV capacity by end of 2014.

Huge benefits

Given Rwanda’s current electricity woes the joint project, according to experts, will make it easy for Rwanda to get backup from regional partners; Uganda, Kenya and from as far as Ethiopia.

Currently, Rwanda is involved with Uganda in a small electricity deal that mainly serves border towns around Cyanika and Gatuna but with the high capacity 400KV interconnection line, more supplies will be expected.

Hydro electricity currently contributes at least 53 percent to Rwanda’s national electricity generation mix with 46 per cent coming from thermal sources and the rest, from methane and solar.

The cost of importing heavy fuels to run heavy thermal generators, currently estimated at $40 million annually, is one that Rwanda can significantly reduce if plans to import the less expensive hydro from Kenya and Ethiopia come through.

However, an interesting irony is that both Kenya and Uganda, albeit having a little more energy resources than Rwanda; also still have major energy constraints at home and some critics wonder where they will get the excess to export to Rwanda.

But Mukaruliza says: "To say that is to miss the point because in the general spirit of sharing resources, we can’t wait for a time when we all have surplus; that point may never come”.