TOP STORY: 20MW in place to end rental power

Government has been spending about $1m (Rwf 560m) on fuel per month on Aggreko generators Government has developed a 20MW heavy fuels oil plant at Jabana, Kigali City a move that will see the end of rental power from Aggreko generators. The new plant which is about 500 meters from Kabuye Sugar Works off Gatuna road is expected to bring down power prices to half the current cost and improve efficiency. The official handover of the plant will be Friday this week. Government has been spending about $1m (Rwf 560m) on fuel per month on Aggreko generators that were installed to generate 15megawatts of thermal energy to tentatively solve the energy crisis in the country. The use of generators was taken as a short-term viable alternative to overcome the power crisis that was affecting the economy because hydro-energy production had been seriously reduced. Felix Gakuba, Project Manager of Urgent Electricity Rehabilitation project said that the project was financed by the government in collaboration with the World Bank at a cost of €18 million (Rwf13.7billion) and installed by Wärtsilä, a Finland based company. “The immediate positive impact expected is to end the thermal energy which is expensive in maintenance and use,” Gakuba said. Currently the Jabana power plant is the biggest plant in the country, and it’s the second after the Nyabarongo power plant with 27MW yet to be constructed. This will bring power generation in the country to about 60MW. The plant has three engines with 7.8MW each with three reservoirs having the capacity of 2.5 million litres; two tanks with a capacity of 1 million litres each with the third one having a 500 litre capacity. The two big tanks are said to run all the three generators for 24 to 30 days at full capacity. The hydro-power project in Nyabarongo will benefit from the $80 million loan approved by the government of India to Rwanda, and is expected to take two to three years to complete. The development of these plants was a government initiative to diversify the power generation due to power shortage caused by poor rains which affected the existing hydro power pants. With such initiatives, government intends to move from the current 6 percent to 16 percent power connectivity by 2012 and 35MW to 50MW percent by 2020. It is expected that by the end of the three years a total of 69.5MWwill have accumulated. A total of 42, 000 new clients are targeted by the end of this year. Electrogaz is a public utility for production, transmission and distribution of Water and Electricity in Rwanda. Ends

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TOP STORY: 20MW in place to end rental power