16
May

Karongi, May 16, 2016- HE Paul Kagame launched KivuWatt Gas Methane Power Plant, the only gas water extraction power plant operating in the world located in Karongi district, western province.

The Phase I of Kivuwatt Methane Gas plant project currently generating 26MW was completed in November 2015. CoutourGlobal, an American energy firm behind the project started to sell the power to the National Utility in December 2015.

In his speech, HE Paul Kagame thanked key partners of this project including African Development Bank, Government of the United States of America, Netherlands, Belgium, The European Union, and World Bank among others. “We are happy to be working with you on very important projects like this one and look forward to even stronger cooperation and continued production of electricity that will be sufficient”. H.E Noted.

President Kagame especially thanked Contour Global, the company behind Kivuwatt project for bringing phase 1 of it to a successful conclusion as it has been witnessed. “Many people thought it was actually impossible to be successful with this kind of endeavor but I was happy today that things have proved to be different”.

President Kagame expressed that Kivuwatt Power Plant is an example of what Rwanda stands for.  He said that the country still has a long way to go to achieve anticipated power generation  

“26 MW we have today is only one step very positive, very important step, 26 MW will not address our power problems but it is an indication of what is possible in trying to address this challenge and this milestone goes beyond just being 26 Mw but tells us that in a short time we could actually address all these challenges we have” President Kagame said.

He called upon the Democratic Republic of Congo and to join hands with Rwanda in line with extracting the Methane gas from Lake Kivu as both countries share the generation potential. 

Joint efforts will help to scale up and produce as much electricity that is going to serve Rwanda as well as DRC.

Kivuwatt Power Plant production added 26MW to the National electricity grid. After the completion of the project first phase, the project management has now switched focus to the second phase of the project to be completed by the year 2020 with a production capacity of 75 MW to the national grid. Works are expected to start early next year.

In 2009, the Government of Rwanda signed concession agreement with Kivuwatt Ltd, a subsidiary of ContourGlobal, an American energy Firm to construct and operate a facility to extract methane gas from Lake Kivu and generate 100 MW of electrical power in two phases. 
Extraction of methane gas from Lake Kivu has a double advantage; reducing the risk of a possible catastrophic outburst of the gas and resolving challenges of energy shortages in Rwanda

Under the second Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS2), the government planned to increase the number of households connected to electricity in the country from around 24 per cent today to 70 per cent by the year 2018.