Twelve-megawatt hydropower plant in Musanze District, Mukungwa Power Station, will be switched off in January for maintenance.

The yearlong rehabilitation comes after the 28MW Nyabarongo Power Stationwas added to the national electricity grid.

"The facelift of Mukungwa Power Station is timely and will come back online after a year,” Jean Bosco Mugiraneza, the chief executive of Rwanda Energy Group (Reg), told The New Times yesterday.

"Nyabarongo will in the meantime serve as a substitute until when both plants will be running concurrently. We are working round the clock to reach the government’s target of getting 563 megawatts of electricity by 2017.”

Added energy

He added that the second generator at Nyabarongo was switched on yesterday, sending eight megawatts of electricity to the national grid.

"Both generators at Nyabarongo are now on. They have a full capacity of 28 megawatts but we must adjust slowly, adding a few voltages at a time until the grid can accommodate full capacity. We hope this will be possible within a month,” Mugiraneza said.