05
Dec

Kigali, December 05, 2019 - Hon. Claver GATETE, Minister of Infrastructure, officially inaugurated Shango substation built to interconnect the electric grids of Rwanda, DR Congo, Tanzania and Uganda.  

The construction of Shango substation falls into the Power Interconnection Program aiming at interconnecting the electric grids of the Nile Equatorial Lakes (NBI) countries, including Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, DR Congo and Rwanda. The project seeks to improve the living conditions of the people, as well as the quality of the socio-economic development environment of the region, based on the availability of affordable electric energy and communities’ access to electricity through increased cross-border electric power trade.

Shango is a 220/110kV substation with two 220kV lines bays to interconnect with Uganda networks, two 220kV line bays to interconnect with Northern Eastern DRC network through Rubavu substation and two 220kV line bays to Western Tanzania network through Regional Rusumo Falls hydropower plant.  

The Minister of Infrastructure, Claver GATETE appreciated the achievement and said that this project is part of a bigger plan to ensure ¬that the Rwanda’s electricity supply meets the increasing demand.

“This energy is going to help us to address our needs and also fostering our economic development. It is also helping us to achieve our energy rollout in terms of access to everybody by the year 2024.” He said. 

He also said that this project will enable Rwanda to exchange power with neighboring countries and also distribute it across all areas in the country.  

“The importance of this work is that it is helping us  to be able to transport all the energy that is being generated. Next year we’ll have Hakan Power plant that will be generating 70 MW of energy. We’ll also have another transmission line that is going to bring that energy. By March 2021, we are getting  56 MW from methane gaz in Rubavu. We’ll be able to transport that energy  and be able to sell in the country and also abroad” he said. 

He also mentioned other ongoing project to increase Rwanda’s electricity generation capacity such as Nyabarongo II that will be add to the grid about 43MW by 2024 being financed by China Exim Bank, Rusizi III that is being financed by the Africa Development Bank, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank.   

We have a target to connect all households in Rwanda by 2024, and   this increase of the electricity is what we need to meet the target. Also, Rwanda’s industrial sector is growing very fast and this means that we need to be ready to supply this demand. This interconnection project is one of the strategies in place to make sure that we will meet the future demand” he noted. 

The Chief Executive Officer of REG, Eng. Ron Weiss appreciated REG technicians who worked on this substation saying that this is the first ever substation to be installed by REG technicians. 

“The company that was hired to build this substation failed to complete the works and we terminated the contract. After the preparation of project sites and equipment handover, we engaged our inhouse teams to work on the remaining electromechanical works at this substation; now it is ready for the interconnection with Uganda network. The two other networks; one from DR Congo and another one from Tanzania will also be interconnected once completed” He said. 

This project was sponsored by the African Development Bank, the German Bank for Development (KFW), the Government of Netherlands as well as the Government of Rwanda.