Kenya will begin to export power to Rwanda to help the latter meet its increasing demands for low cost electricity. This follows the signing of a trade deal on Tuesday this week for construction of a 220kv electricity line from Kenya to Rwanda.
Kenya will start the sale of 30 MW of power from July next year according to the Power Purchase Agreement. Rwanda will pay Kenya 12 US cents per kilowatt hour for the electricity, but Uganda will also levy 2.08 US cents as wheeling charge since the power line will pass through the country.
“We have 160MW of installed capacity and demand for about the same so we operate at no spinning reserve,” said Rwanda’s Energy Development Corporation managing director Robert Nyamvumba.
This comes after Kenya is expecting the output to increase to 2,079 MW by end of June. Kenya Power MD Ben Chumo has said that if the rate of development of energy resources goes on, there will be more than enough energy produced.
Chumo has said that lack of adequate transmission infrastructure has negatively affected energy trade deals. Uganda Electricity Transmission Company CEO Eriasi Kiyemba said that the negative impacts of 2005 drought on East Africa’s hydropower generation should have made countries to diversify energy sources and share power in times of need.
Kenya has added 140MW of power into the grid from geothermal power generation since September and additional 70MW were expected this December. EAC heads of state have agreed on sharing cheaper electricity.
