The recent electricity outages that were experienced in Kigali and few other parts of the country were caused by vandalism and theft of some electricity infrastructure, as well as ongoing construction works, Rwanda Energy Group (REG) has said. In the recent weeks, many parts of the city have had an unsteady power supply, and such has been reported in some other areas like Kirehe and Gicumbi districts in the Eastern and Northern provinces. In an interview with The New Times on Friday, November 19, Fred Kagabo, the Director of Electricity Distribution and Operations at Energy Utility Corporation Limited (EUCL), a subsidiary company of REG said: “Recently, we had some unexpected power cuts in Kigali and in a few other parts of the country. Some of the cases are due to electricity infrastructure vandalism like theft of cables, circuit breakers, cross arms and other components of the electrical network while others are due to some construction works which damage electrical lines.” He noted that they gave special attention to this issue and also apologized to the public for the inconvenience caused by the outages. “When such incidents happen, normally we start by urgently restoring power and later make a deeper assessment to know the root cause and determine strategies to prevent it in the future,” he said. “So we’ve already dispatched our technical teams all over the network to inspect every line and report any potential fault or default that may hinder effective power supply. Findings from this inspection will guide us in our future projects to rehabilitate and upgrade our existing network,” he added. In an operation carried out against power theft and infrastructure vandalism in various parts of the country in between October 12 to November 12, up to 17 people were arrested, being suspected of taking part in such. On Friday, November 19, via their Twitter account, REG announced arrests of two people that had been taking part in infrastructure theft in Rulindo district. “In collaboration with security organs, yesterday in Rulindo district, we caught red-handed Benimana and Niyomukiza obtaining REG electricity service cables. They were immediately handed to RIB (Rwanda Investigation Bureau) Bushoki for investigation,” the tweet read. Kagabo highlighted that there are several ongoing projects to upgrade and strengthen the entire electricity network so as to ensure stability and reliability of power supply. These include the “Kigali Ring Distribution Network” project which aims at rehabilitating and upgrading the distribution network in many parts of the city. “Recently, we completed another project which constructed several new power houses all over the city. Such projects will ensure quality power supply in Kigali City and in the whole country in general. Efforts to improve the electricity network will continue to be deployed as much as possible to ensure quality service to our customers,” he said. Meanwhile, according to REG, some power supply cuts are still expected in some parts of Gatsibo and Nyagatare districts in the Eastern Province from November 21 to December 12.
