E. Province urges power regulator to end outages

Residents of Eastern Province districts have appealed to the new Energy Holding Company, formerly Energy Water and Sanitation Authority, to normalise electricity supply to save businesses in the area. Some of the residents, who spoke with , said the area has been without stable electricity power for several months.Claude Ndayambaje who operates a pub in Ngoma District, told this paper that with the increasing unreliability of electricity he has had to rely on a power generator which he said is eating into his profits.He lamented that the amount he spent daily to fuel the generator was above what he earned a day.“It is getting intolerable in business terms. Power supply has been too low to keep us in business. We get power for less than six hours a day, the regulators should do something because this is hurting our businesses,” he said.Mohamed Habimana, a popcorn vendor in Rwamagana town, appealed to the national utility to urgently stabilise power supply to the area.He said many business owners would close if it the current situation continues.Generator faultEastern Province has several factories with high consumption of electricity, to which the utility’s officials attribute the shortage. “SteelRwa Industry in Rwamagana and East Africa Granite Industries in Ntagatare both use a lot of power,” said Vincent Mpaka, the director of electricity at Energy Holding Company, said.He said the power shortage was exacerbated by the breakdown of a seven-megawatt generator located at Jabana.“One of our main generators has been down for several days. This, coupled with general power shortage, led to the low power supply. But it’s not unique to Eastern Province; other parts of the country are affected too. We do rationing at the moment,” Mpaka said.“Our engineers are working tirelessly to restore electricity to the affected areas. We expect the generator to be revived by November 25, we regret the inconveniences caused.”

National

E. Province urges power regulator to end outages