Jan 18 2011
The Rukarara Small Hydro Power Project, in Rwanda, has been completed and is now ready to produce power ranging between 2.5 to 6 MW for the national electric grid. The project had been completed at a total cost of $23.5 million.
According to Colletha Ruhamya, the State Minister for Energy, the plant began generating electricity in December 2010, in the Nyamagabe District located in the Southern Province. She mentioned that the program was currently producing around 6 MW though it was supposed to generate 9.5 MW. They were expecting to generate more as the rainy season advances and there was an increase in the water flow. She also stated that this was still only the testing stage for the dam and that it would be commissioned only after some time.
Leonard Kassana, who is a Hydropower Consultant, at the Ministry of Infrastructure revealed that the major components of the project were completely installed. An 8 km single circuit transmission line of 30kV has been recently constructed, which would be used to connect the power generated in the plant to a Medium voltage line to the national network. Kassana also disclosed that full load testing by using all the three generating units at the same time was to be looked into and redesigned.
If the power plant runs at maximum capacity then it would offer 11% of the total national capacity. The plant having three turbines had been managed by the Beijing Forever Technology Development till July 2009 and was then given to Canada’s AECOM (or RSM International) in December 2009. MININFRA also disclosed that other projects both regional and domestic were also being implemented such as the 28 MW Nyabarongo Hydro Electric Project, which would be operational by 2013 February; the 145 MW Rusizi III HEP would be ready to start in 2016; the 61 MW Rusomo, which would be shared between Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi would be completed in 2015 to name a few.
Source: http://www.mininfra.gov.rw