At least 430,000 people will potentially have access to electricity through the Kamanyola-Bujumbura energy transmission line and the Bujumbura substation, the African Development Bank (AfDB) said after a new contract signing.
The Burundi Water and Electricity Production and Distribution Authority (REGIDESO) recently signed the contract with Indian multinational company, KEC International, to start construction work on the project.
According to the bank, the work, to last 18 months, will allow the construction of an 80-kilometer 220 kilovolt (kV) power transmission line connecting Kamanyola and Bujumbura and a 220/110/30 kV substation in the economic capital of Burundi.
World Bank Global Electrification Database in 2019 put the percentage of the entire population that had access to electricity in the east African country at 11 percent.
‘The government of Burundi has received funding totalling €30.70 million, including €15.70 million from the African Development Bank and €15 million from the European Union, to achieve the Multinational Project for the Interconnection of the Electric Grids of the Nile Equatorial Lakes Countries (PMIREL-PLEN) – Kamanyola-Bujumbura power line component and the associated substation’, AfDB said in a statement.
Data from the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative (SEforALL) shows that Burundi is one of the least electrified countries globally.
SEforALL also noted that the energy situation in Burundi is characterised by insufficient power supply to meet the demand.
According to World Bank data, only one in ten Burundians have access to electricity and only two percent of the country’s rural population have access to electricity.
‘The project aims to improve the living conditions of the population and strengthen the quality of the economic and social development framework of the region, as well as of the country, through increased access to electricity at an affordable cost for the population thanks to the increase in cross-border exchanges of electrical energy’, AfDB also said.
‘The energy transmission line will be used in particular to evacuate the energy production of the future regional hydroelectric plant of Ruzizi III on the Ruzizi river on the border between DR Congo and Rwanda to Burundi and will provide 400 gigawatt hours per year in the country. At least 430,000 people will potentially have access to electricity through this project’.
Source: AfDB
Photo source: AfDB
