The 80MW Regional Rusumo Power Project Begins to Deliver power to Burundi, Rwanda, and Tanzania

Between November , 2023, and January 31st, 2024, the 80MW Regional Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Project delivered a total of 66 million KWh of electricity to three countries, with Burundi receiving the highest allocation of 22 million KWh while Rwanda and Tanzania both received 21 million KWh. The Rusumo Project Manager (PM) Eng. Alloyce Oduor revealed this on February 1st 2024.

“After completing all required tests, NELSAP has signed the certificates of completion and handed over two of the three turbines to the Rusumo Power Company Limited (RPCL) the special purpose vehicle formed by the three countries to manage the plant on their behalf, after completion and handover from NELSAP,’ said Eng. Dr. Isaac Alukwe, NELSAP-CU Regional Coordinator. The Rusumo plant has three turbines, each with installed capacity of 27MW. 

“All three turbines have been tested and each has the capacity to individually operate at 105%,’ said Eng. Alloyce Oduor. The Project Manager said this while addressing journalists from seven (7) NEL countries that visited the plant on January 31st 2024. Final tests on the third turbine are ongoing and once engineers complete the tests, NELSAP and RPCL will sign a final hand over certificate ahead of official inauguration by the heads of States of the three countries, planned for April 2024.

“Burundi’s peak power demand is averagely 90MW and so if the country gets 27MW from Rusumo, it will represent a significant percentage of lower cost power. Rwanda has a peak power demand of average 250MW and an additional 27MW is technically substantial. Tanzania on the other hand has peak power demand of over 1,000MW. Whereas an additional 27MW may look relatively small, it is significant because it will stabilize the voltage level of the Northern and North-Western parts of the country and make quality of power in that region better and more reliable,” added Eng. Oduor. He explained that key causes of power outages are imbalance between generation and uptake and added that these two must match on second-by-second basis and if at any point they don’t match, disturbances can occur. 

The 80MW Regional Rusumo power plant, being a hydropower facility, is a low-cost renewable energy source and will lower the cost of power in the countries and stabilize the voltage levels. Once power from the plant enters the grid of a country, it lowers the cost of power to the power utilities because it allows the utilities to switch off expensive fossil-fuel generated energy sources. The utilities will then pass these lower costs to end users. 

The Rusumo Power project is a notable example of benefits of transboundary collaboration, and it holds great promise for economies and people of the three countries. It will spur industrialization, improve delivery of services like water, health, and education, support economic activities like manufacturing and improve the lives of people through access to lower cost electricity.