Electricity body builds new surveillance system

In a bid to improve its services, the Rwanda Electricity Corporation (RECO), has completed the development of a new system with the latest technology that help will monitor all electricity connections. The technology will swiftly report to a central control station, all power disconnections, interruptions and breakage of electric poles anywhere in the country. The new system, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition/ Energy Management (SCADA/EM), which started in 2008, was inaugurated yesterday by Vincent Karega, the Minister of Infrastructure at the Gikondo Power Plant, Kicukiro District. Speaking in an interview, the Managing Director of RECO/RWASCO, Yves Muyange, said that the system will improve the balance of power production and consumption. He also said that the system will increase power reliability and reduce losses in the transmission and distribution of electricity countrywide. “In the past, a power difficulty would occur and it would take one or two days to identify and locate where the problem was. With this system, however, we are able to locate the affected area, isolate it and instantly send our technicians to solve the problem, while the surrounding area is not affected,” Muyange said. Muyange added that the project cost a total of 25 million Euros, half of which was a grant from the Dutch Foreign Aid Programme. Minister Karega said that the system will enable RECO to effectively manage its power distribution and, in effect, bring direct benefits to the population “The project will deliver immediate socio-economic developments to Rwanda,” Karega said. He added that the system will be suitable for private investments since it deals with restructuring and expanding the nation’s electricity system. Ends

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Electricity body builds new surveillance system