electrification target on track - reg
reg’s chief executive officer jean-bosco mugiraneza c addressing the media in kigali kigali th june - rwanda energy group reg has insisted it will meet the target to ensure at least per cent of national households are connected to electricity with customers of reg currently connected to power across the country are contributing per cent to the overall target of per cent households targeted the connection target includes per cent on grid and per cent off grid power generation reg has recorded generation capacity increase of megawatts over the last two years of its establishment bringing the current total installed capacity to megawatts with the government projecting megawatts power generation in the next two years despite some skepticism about the per cent target of connectivity reg chief executive officer jean bosco mugiraneza is confident that there are quite a number of projects in the pipeline to make the target feasible within the set timeframe we will use both on-grid and off-grid solutions to achieve this target he said we are signing many contracts with investors to roll out solar systems in rural areas and this is really working out reg’s chief executive officer jean-bosco mugiraneza c speaks to media as maj eng jean claude kalisa managing director eucl l and emanuel kamanzi md edcl r mugiraneza was yesterday addressing journalists on the status of energy in the country in kigali on-grid generation are halfway our target then off-grid have to multiply efforts that’s why are signing contracts with investors the target is still on that’s why have to change strategies and increase efforts to make it feasible he said current electrification rates stand at per cent of hospitals per cent of health centers per cent of administrative sector offices and per cent of primary and secondary schools emmanuel kamanzi the managing director of energy development corporation ltd edcl said electrification targets will met but the main focus should rather on how to match electricity supply with demand we need to put infrastructure in place to close the power deficits and increase transmission lines kamanzi said to enhance domestic and regional electricity access interconnection lines are under construction to allow power trade exchange in the region these include kv line mirama-shango of kilometres connecting rwanda with uganda kv line shango-rubavu-goma-karongi of km connecting rwanda with dr congo kv line rusumo-bugesera-shango connecting rwanda with burundi it is expected that the power-exchange project will possible through kv power transmission infrastructure with all neighboring countries when you look at the pipeline projects are saying that should even move a bit slower to commit more because may sign up as many as can you may not able to consume all the power you have we need to have supply that meets the demand requirements kamanzi said kamanzi argued that once people relocate to stay along transmission lines it will easier for the utility to reach as many households as possible at minimum cost gishoma peat plant in testing phase during the press conference reg’s mugiraneza also confirmed that gishoma peat power plant is now in its testing phase the plant is currently generating megawatts the testing of gishoma peat power plant which will generate megawatts in total has been going on since june with cimerwa cement manufacturer using the load said mugiraneza gishoma peat to power plant is the first power plant of its kind in africa source reg