219014623 MUSHAGE BONDO Pascal Thesis

College of Science and Technology
P.O. Box 4285 Kigali, Rwanda Website: www.aceesd.ur.ac.rw
SUBMISSION CHECKLIST FOR MASTERS THESIS SUBMISSION: OCTOBER 2020
Project Title: HYDROPOWER POTENTIAL ASSESSMENT AND
MODELLING OF GRID INTERCONNECTION FOR THE NORTH-KIVU
PROVINCE IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC)
Names of student: MUSHAGE BONDO Pascal
Student Number: 219014623
Program of study: EPS
Names of approving supervisor and signature: Dr.-Ing. Getachew Biru
Date of approval : 12.10.2020
SN
List of components to be checked
Comment from supervisor
1
Comments raised by panel during research
proposal were fully addressed
Yes.
2
All UR postgraduate thesis writing guidelines
were followed
Yes.
3
Plagiarism has been checked and proper
citation was made. Similarity index has been
checked and is within acceptable percentage
(Not more than 24%).
Yes.
4
Please indicate the level of similarity index
14%

College of Science and Technology
HYDROPOWER POTENTIAL ASSESSMENT AND MODELLING
OF GRID INTERCONNECTION FOR THE NORTH-KIVU
PROVINCE IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
(DRC)
Thesis Number:
By
MUSHAGE BONDO Pascal
Registration Number: 219014623
A dissertation submitted to the African Center of Excellence in Energy for
Sustainable development
College of Science and Technology
University of Rwanda in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
degree of
MASTERS OF ELECTRICAL POWER SYSTEMS
Adviser: Getachew Biru Worku (Dr. -Ing.)
Adama Science and Technology University
October 2020

i
1. Declaration
I declare that this dissertation is the result of my work except where specifically
acknowledged, and it has been passed through the anti-plagiarism system and found to be
compliant and this is the approved final version of the thesis.
Student name and Number: MUSHEGE BONDO Pascal/ ID: 219014623
Signed:
Date:
Supervisor: Getachew Biru Worku (Dr. -Eng.)
Signed:
Date:

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2. Acknowledgements
My deepest gratitude goes to my adviser Dr.-Ing. Getachew Biru Worku for his continuous
and consistent support, feedback valuable advice and remarks that highly contributed to the
elaboration of this work.
I am very grateful to the teaching staff of the African Center of Excellence in Energy for
Sustainable Development, through the University of Rwanda, College of Science and
Technology (ACEESD-UR/CST), for the knowledge that I gained from their lectures, which
helped me to conduct the actual research.
I would like to thank the World bank through collaboration with the government of Rwanda
for their financial support that allowed me to live in Rwanda and conduct my studies during
the time required for my master's program.
I am grateful to Dr Eng. Bikorimana Jean-Marie Vianney for his consistent advice and for
encouraging me to apply to this Master's program at the ACEESD and for his assistance in
my adaptation in Rwanda.
I thank as well Msc. Mukundufite Fabien for his support and his collaboration that helped
me to follow my goals during my studies.
Last but not the least, I thank all family members, friends and all staff of the Catholic
University La Sapientia in the Democratic Republic of Congo for their consistent
encouragement that motivated me to undertake this Master's program.
MUSHAGE BONDO Pascal

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3. Abstract
North Kivu is one of the twenty-six provinces of DRC, and it is composed of six
territories. Among these territories, only a small part of Nyiragongo territory and Goma town
are connected to the Eastern National Grid (SNEL). Others are still living without electricity
despite the abundant hydropower potential available in the province which remains
unexploited. Previous studies have identified rivers with potential hydropower potential in
the province, but no technical study is done on how this potential can be integrated and
exploited in a way that the Government and investors get sufficient concrete information and
interest in developing the resource for the benefit of the population, who are mainly still
living in dark. Besides, the electricity demand of the province was still not well known,
which would help to evaluate at which rate the hydropower potential can contribute to
covering the regional electricity demand. This thesis aims to assess all hydropower potential
from existing hydrological data and see at which rate it can contribute to the electricity
supply in the province and design a Grid-connected system for major hydropower plants.
The Atlas of renewable energy of DRC estimated a total of  of hydropower
potential in the province. Based on 2020 data and empirical analysis, the actual electricity
demand of the province has been estimated at around . It was found that this actual
demand can be covered at 43.2% by the total hydropower potential. Moreover, this study
proposes a Grid-connected system for the province, where a total of 11 small and medium
hydropower plants have been interconnected for higher power reliability and security of the
local electricity supply. The pre-feasibility study of the proposed system was studied in
RETSCreen Expert software. The economic indices such as a PBP of 4.05 years, an IRR of
28.74 %, a BCR of 4.08% and a LCOE of 0.08 USD/kWh proved that the proposed system
was economically feasible. A Simulink model of the proposed system was simulated to
verify how power is being shared between different buses. It has been found that a total of
5.99MW out of a total generated of 250.15MW were lost in the network. From there, the
conclusion and recommendations for the improvement of the proposed system before its
implementation have been formulated.
Keywords: Hydropower potential assessment, Grid-connected system, RETSCReen Expert
software, Matlab/Simulink