In a consultative workshop convened by government and private sector institutions, this November 2024, Rwanda Energy Group -REG pointed out that large-scale projects that require electricity, both for the country and partners, need cooperation on both sides in planning so that their implementation is accelerated.
This meeting takes place when customers order an elevated quantity of megawatts and find that their projects, such as factories and other investment activities in areas not included in the REG planning, will need an extra quantity of electricity. Thus, they delayed the implementation of their projects because they did not inform the size of their projects before implementing them.
This meeting has also focused on key major electrical loads such as Power Generation, transmission, distribution, access, and tariffs.
REG stakeholders among others appreciated the work of REG and that they are ready for cooperation in planning, but they also requested that REG branches should work more closely with them.
Bizimana Pascal is one of REG’s partners working in the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock MINAGRI.
”You see that our country is developing, our simple request is related to factories which have not worked with REG. As you are experts in electricity, please send your Branch managers like in Nyagatare district to come and visit us at least twice a month where we have a big factory to see if there is not any issue of fire outbreak. This visit would be better than waiting fire outbreak in our factories.” Bizimana said.
Do stakeholders get enough energy information in Rwanda?
The strategic plan of Rwanda Energy Group stipulates that the company should organize stakeholders’ fora to reinforce awareness on the progress of projects, and service improvements and discuss possible solutions to challenges raised. It is also a corporate responsibility to continuously engage stakeholders to further improve the value proposition.
It is in this regard that REG proposes to organize a consultative workshop with key stakeholders on electrical loads to present and discuss findings of power development plans and projects in the pipeline.
During a Consultative workshop, REG CEO Armand Zingiro urged REG stakeholders to reinforce their information sharing on their anticipated major electrical loads, appraise progress, identify service improvements based on internal systematic and rigorous assessment, and find solutions to identified challenges.
”We need to connect electricity to everyone who needs electricity. This is why we need your cooperation ‘all of you’ to hit the target of universal access to electricity goals,” Armand said.
REG Stakeholders were equally advised to pay their electricity bills on time to avoid late penalty payments. Late payments negatively affect Utility cash flows and its ability to pay suppliers and develop other power-related projects.
REG-EUCL also requests stakeholders to help in fighting corruption, fraudulent usage of electricity, and vandalism of its infrastructure saying that all payments for services are only paid via REG/EDCL/EUCL bank accounts.
According to REG reports, currently, Rwandans who have access to electricity count 80.1%, and generation capacity has increased to megawatt 406.402 MW, to an optimized target capacity of 556MW. This generation capacity was at 353.4 MW in fiscal year 2022-2023.
