The government of Rwanda has officially inaugurated the upgraded Rulindo and Gifurwe substations which aims at reducing power loss and improve efficiency in power supply, especially in the Northern Province.
Speaking during the inauguration ceremony, Ron Weiss, Chief Executive Officer of REG said the country the country is heading towards an improvement in reliability of supplied.
“There is a big improvement in terms of reduced outages for feeders supplied from both Rulindo and Gifurwe. This does not only translate into improved service delivery but also a financial gain to us,” said Ron Weiss.
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Rulindo and Gifurwe substations
Upgrading of the two substations, brought about by the overload of the existing small substation, which had to be transformed into a switching substation linked to Gabiro substation, received a US $7.2m loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB) through the Scaling Up Energy Access Project (SEAP).
Additionally, all outgoing feeders namely Gakenke, Kirambo and Ntaruka were also connected to one switch. This meant that failure of any of the feeders would cause power outages for many households, hence making rehabilitation necessary.
The two substations were upgraded with two transformers of 20MVA each, replacing the old 10 MVA transformers at the Gifurwe substation which could not cope with the demand during peak hours, sometimes leading to power outages.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Patricie Uwase, hailed the support from the Africa Development Bank, saying had boosted power distribution. “We have confidence that the completion of this phase will boost our network operations, reduce power and energy losses.”
