ZESCO lights up Power Africa Conference in Rwanda
ZESCO Limited was invited to participate in this year’s Power Africa Conference organized by IEEE Power and Energy Society(PES) , Industry Applications Society (IAS), Smart village, among others, held in Kigali, Rwanda. A delegation from ZESCO Limited, led by the Managing Director Eng. V.B. Mapani, attended and participated in the event, which took place from the 22nd of August to the 26th of August 2022. Among others, participants from different countries, spanning from the energy industry, academia, researchers and developers from the continent and overseas attended the conference. Rwanda’s Honorable Minister Of infrastructure Dr Ernest Nsabimana launched the event at Carnegie Mellon University in Kigali. The theme of the conference was "Convergence of National and Off Grid Systems: Roles of Renewables Productive Use and Electric Mobility.†The main area of discussion was the penetration of renewables, with key focus on solar in the national grids and off-grid systems. The forum also saw the presentation of breakthroughs in electric mobility and interconnection of national grids across the continent. ZESCO Limited Managing Director Eng. V.B. Mapani, and Deputy Director -Transmission Assets at ZESCO, Mr. Clement Siame represented the corporation in a panel discussion on the topic “Hosting Capacity in Distribution Networks: Grid integration of Solar Power.†The MD presented on ZESCO Limited and its Solar Power Integration. Further, Deputy Director Siame made a presentation on the impact of integration of renewables on the grid and the mitigation measures. A series of strategic meetings with key players in Rwanda’s energy sector, made part of ZESCO’s mission in Rwanda. Meetings were held with a representative of the IEEE Prof. Bruce Krogh and Prof. Joseph Mutale, to discuss areas of collaboration in the roll out of renewables and off grid solutions including the support to engineering schools in Zambia. A meeting was also held with the MD of Rwanda's Energy Utility Corporation (EUCL) whose holding company is Rwanda Energy Group. Further, the ZESCO delegation met with Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority (RURA). Key focus of these meetings was to get key learnings and exchange notes. Some key areas of discussion were on capacity generation, renewables integration and tariff management.