The long awaited KivuWatt energy plant on Lake Kivu has finally been connected to the national grid, with early testing of the power plant generating up to 22mw against its 25mw full installed capacity, reliable sources have revealed.

Rwanda Energy Group (REG) chief executive officer, Jean Bosco Mugiraneza, exclusively told The New Times last week that KivuWatt went on grid recently and has strategically been connected to the transmission line from Karongi District to Kigali city.

Jarmo Gummerus, the KivuWatt country director, confirmed the development but added that they are still testing several elements of the power plant and expect to have stabilised the process for the full 25mw generation capacity by the end of this month.

Gerard Rusine, REG’s peat and  methane gas specialist and also the designated project manager for KivuWatt, said the facility has three generators whose capacity has been undergoing tests to ensure stable plant to grid generation.

"So far, the tests have been successful, everything is going on well,” he said by phone over the weekend.

As of last week, the plant generation averaged between 15 and 17 megawatts to the national grid, according to Rusine, who added that full capacity will be possible after the completion of the ongoing tests.

The KivuWatt plant testing process has not only generated electricity but also excitement at REG, which  expects to significantly reduce load-shedding,  as well as the  budget currently spent on importing heavy fuels to generate the 51.7mw from thermal energy.

After over seven years’ works, KivuWatt is as good as complete and the American energy firm ContourGlobal, which has a government concession to produce 100mw from the methane rich lake, has already switched focus to the second phase of  the project.

Sources at REG have indicated that they expect the tests to be concluded by the end of this month, and inauguration of the plant to happen before the end of the year.

The successful completion of the KivuWatt and its subsequent contribution to the national grid will be a large footstep by the government towards its ambition to add at least 61.5mw by the end of this fiscal year.

According to officials, the 61.5mw expected this fiscal year is projected to come from ongoing projects such as Gishoma Peat Plant (15mw), Giggawatt Solar Power Plant (8.5mw), as well as the planned importation of 30mw from Kenya.

Energy inadequacy is an Achilles-heel to Rwanda’s investment promotion efforts and the government has tasked itself to have boosted the installed generation capacity to 563mw by the year 2018 from the current 161.2mw.

Hydro electricity currently accounts for 97.37mw of the total installed capacity, with thermal power generating 51.7mw, while 8.75mw is produced from solar energy.

There are also projects in the pipeline expected to yield in the medium and long-term periods, including 8mw from Rusumo hydroelectric project, 147mw from Rusizi III hydro project and the planned importation of 400mw  from Ethiopia.

However, critics of the government have previously lashed out at what they called overly ‘ambitious targets’ such as the previous 1160mw goal for 2017 which has since been gradually revised downwards to the current 563mw, seen as more realistic.

Initially, critics had also dismissed the KivuWatt scheme as a white elephant project that would fail to yield and the project’s failure to meet past completion deadlines almost validated those claims.

But with the plant finally coming on the national grid, the inauguration of KivuWatt is likely to send out a strong statement that government is committed to turning its ‘mega-words’ on energy into real megawatts.

That commitment was further emphasised in October when cabinet licensed another American energy firm, Symbion, to join ContourGlobal in developing more methane powered projects on Lake Kivu.

Lake Kivu’s Methane resource is estimated to be sufficient for the generation of 700mw of electricity over a period of 55 years.  Rwanda’s share of that total generation potential is about 350mw, with the rest being DRC’s.

Powering Rwanda

To match the country’s industrialisation drive, boosting energy production is seen as the vehicle towards ending not only the current unstable supplies but also easing the cost which is one of the highest in the region.

However, there is also the wider need to increase the number of households connected to electricity from around 20 per cent, currently, to 70 per cent of the population, by 2018, under the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy.