Ruzizi Iii Hydropower Tender

ScopeThe Ruzizi III is a 147MW hydropower project being developed on the Ruzizi River that flows along the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo the DRC Burundi and Rwanda.The project is being developed as a public-private partnership PPP between the three countries a consortium of Industrial Promotion Services IPS and SN Power through a 25-year concession agreement. The consortium will develop the plant under build own operate and transfer BOOT basis and will run the plant as an independent power producer.In July 2019 the project agreement was signed after negotiations between the Communaut Economique des Pays des Grands Lacs CEPGL member states Burundi the DRC and Rwanda and the consortium.Each three of the contracting states will have a stake of 10 with an equal off-take share in the project through CEPGLs energy affiliate Energie des Grands Lacs EGL. The consortium will own the remaining 70 stake.The project is being developed with an estimated investment of 650m to 700m and is expected to be operational by 2026. It is anticipated to generate 675 gigawatt hours GWh of energy a year. The project will involve the construction of a 120m-long diversion dam a 7km headrace tunnel with a head height of 110m a 220kV switchyard and a 10km transmission line to the Kamanyola substation in the DRC. The reservoir will have a storage capacity of 1.9 million cubic metres. The Ruzizi III hydropower plant HPP will be a run-of-the-river hydroelectric plant with three power generation units each integrating a Francis-type turbine and an alternator. The turbine generator units will be placed in a surface powerhouse located 3.9km from the dam. A 3.9km-long penstock will also be constructed on the Rwandan side while the derivation channel will be dug on the Congolese side of the river. Each turbine of the power plant will be designed for a maximum flow rate of 50ms providing a cumulative plant discharge of 150ms. The Ruzizi I II and III plants will operate as a cascade and the same water will flow successively through the turbines of the three power plants. A small generating unit will be built at the dam site to generate power from the ecological flow released into the bypassed stretch of the river between the dam and power station. The electricity generated from the Ruzizi III HPP will be transported by 220kV lines that connect the elevating substation of the powerhouse to the transmission substation while a smaller 30kV line will transmit power to the dam site.