The Rusomo hydropower plant under construction on
the Rusumo Falls at the border of Rwanda and Tanzania is expected to be
complete by 2020.
Amb. Claver Gatete, Rwanda’s minister for infrastructure
affirmed that the deadline would be met since construction works are on
track and the 80MW project, expected to benefit millions of people in Rwanda,
Tanzania and Burundi, is on track.
The construction contract was awarded to Chinese
firm CGCOC Group Ltd – Jiangxi Water & Hydropower
Construction Company Ltd Joint Venture. The hydro power features a run-of-the-river
design that eliminates the need for constructing a reservoir while minimising
social and environmental impacts.
There will also be a concrete gated dam 12 m high and
a spillway structure with three water passages. The passages will be equipped
with three radial gates and a two-lane road will be built on top of the dam.
Water intake and the head race tunnel of the plant will be 11 m wide and 14 m high
with a shotcrete and rock bolts support system.
A concrete-lined vertical surge shaft 8 m in diameter
and a 41-m-diameter surge chamber will also be constructed. The power house of
the plant will have three vertical axis Kaplan turbines and three 30MW
generators with 12kV output voltage. There will also be a 260m-long diversion
canal with a width of 17m and a 250m-long tailrace canal with a width of 40m.
The joint project between World Bank and the
African Development Bank aims at increasing the benefiting countries by
supplying power through the 80-MW hydropower facility. This will generate an
additional 26.6 MW of power to the benefiting states while it strengthens the
regional power interconnection between the countries.
During the construction, over 500 non-skilled and casual workers from Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi would gain employment. Once completed, Rwanda will have a 4% electricity boost with 467,000 households connected to the national grid while Burundi and Tanzanian would have a 5% and 0.034% increase respectively.https://constructionreviewonline.com/2019/02/us-468m-rusumo-hydropower-plant-in-tanzania-to-be-complete-soon/
