The goal remains to create and foster an environment that encourages more involvement from the private sector, which is only positive and a change from when the government was the sole investor in the energy sector. 

 

This move is designed to enable the country to produce an increased 563MW and reach 70 percent of the nation’s populace in the process. Rwandan hopes to achieve middle-class status by 2020, through such undertakings. 

 

Four sub-sectors are utilized by RURA to regulate energy in Rwanda. Those being renewable energy, economic regulation, legal services and consumer affairs to give the government valuable advice on policy, license review applications, setting tariffs, monitoring compliance and ensuring that quality services are rendered among others.

 

The last seven years have seen an increased presence of the private sector in the power generation sector which has resulted in an improved generation capacity and availability of electricity to consumers. 

 

The increased investment from the private sector in various forms of energy like hydro, solar, gas etc has seen the country raise their power generation from 100MW to 260MW. 

 

RURA Director-General believes that the private sector sharing the government’s burden will enable the government to focus on other areas of importance. 

 

Some developments in energy are revolutionary in nature, for example, Methane gas extraction from Lake Kivu. For instance, the technology used to extract gas from a depth of 250-350m underwater also purifies and convert that gas to electricity.

 

This has resulted in a huge impact socially by increasing accessibility to power by 24 percent. 

This is a significant increase but the goal remains to reach 70 percent of Rwanda’s population by 2020, with several new projects in the works to achieve that figure.

 

Source : Business News Africa