Construction of the $340-million Rusumo hydropower plant, on the Rwanda-Tanzania border, is set to begin early next year.
This follows the awarding of the construction contract to a consortium compromising Chinese companies China Geo-Engineering Corporation and Jianxi Water & Hydro Construction and Austria’s Andritz Hydro.
The 80 MW plant will benefit Rwanda, Tanzania and Burundi and is being developed by Rusumo Power Company, which is owned and financed by the three countries but is privately managed.
“The contract for the project has been awarded and we expect construction to begin early in 2017,” says project manager Johnson Lee Pattinson.
The project – located on the Kagera river, about 2 km downstream from a point where Rwanda and Tanzania share a border with Burundi – will be funded by the World Bank.
Meanwhile, the African Development Bank is to provide $130-million for the construction of transmission lines and substations connecting the plant to the three countries’ national grids. Each of the three countries will receive 26 MW of power when the plant comes on stream in 2019.
The transmission lines will include a 98 km, 220 kV double-circuit line from the plant to the new Nyakanazi substation, in Tanzania, and a 119 km, 220 KV double-circuit transmission line from the Birembo substation to the new Bugesera International Airport substation, in Rwanda. Also to be built is a 161 km, 220 kV single- circuit transmission line running from the power plant to the Gitegavia Muyinga substation, in Burundi.
Construction of the plant comes at a time when demand for electricity in the three countries is on the increase.