13
Jul

On this 13th of July 2017 , REG inaugurated two completed projects in transmission and generation located in the Western Province. These include the 15 MW peat to power plant of Gishoma and the transmission line linking Ntendezi to Bugarama with its substations.

Due to Rwanda’s good business environment for investors, recently many companies have expressed interest to invest in Rwanda and build factories. The increase in the number of investors with their big projects has led to the increase of energy demand.

In a  bid to increase electricity access to all Rwandan citizens in general and investors in particular, the Government of Rwanda through Rwanda Energy Group (REG) is implementing power transmission and distribution projects. These projects include the construction of new transmission lines and substations as well as the upgrade of the already existing infrastructure.

“Our objective is to satisfy our clients by ensuring reliable and continuous power supply and participate actively in Economic development of Rwanda” said Eng. Ron Weiss, CEO of REG.

CIMERWA is one of the biggest factories in Rwanda which was constructed in 1982 with the objective of producing cement to satisfy the Rwandan market. At that time, CIMERWA was supplied with Electric Power by REG network using 30kV Overhead line from Mururu 1 substation. Given the growth of the Rwanda’s cement demand on the market, CIMERWA constructed a new factory to increase the supply and this required an increase of Electrical Power consumed by the factory up to 15MW.

It was in this regard that CIMERWA requested REG to avail 15MW dedicated only to the new cement factory.  At the same time, a new peat to power plant named “Gishoma peat-to-power project” was built in Rusizi District and started producing 15MW.

In connection with this, REG initiated these 2 projects including the construction of Ntendezi substation and extension of the already existing Bugarama substation to not only satisfy CIMERWA electricity demand, but also to  allow the evacuation of the 15MW from Gishoma peat-to-power plant and hence increasing the capacity and stability of power supply in the West of Rwanda. 

The two substations are linked by a 17.5km, 110kV line called Ntendezi-Bugarama Transmission line. The Step-down substations of Bugarama and Ntendezi also are used to supply the new rural electrification projects which are currently developing in the region.

 These infrastructure were built by EDCL, a REG subsidiary in charge of energy development projects. During their inauguration, they were handled over to EUCL in charge of utility for maintenance and management.

Gishoma peat to power plant