SMALL SCALE HYDROPOWER POTENTIAL ASSESSMENT IN RWANDA (A CASE OF MUKUNGWA RIVER BASIN)

Abstract

This study aims at potential assessment of Small Scale Hydropower in Mukungwa River basin. Seven potential sites, ungauged or gauged, were identified along the main river Mukungwa and its tributaries. The average annual rainfall of the area and average monthly stream flow of different dependability have been analyzed in the present study. Applying Area Ratio Method, average monthly flows for ungauged sites were determined from nearby gauged station with the same catchment characteristics using empirical relation, resulting to the transformation of Flow Duration Curve for each site of interest. In this study, the output energy for identified sites, was computed from Flow Duration curves and average monthly flows which was found to be 71.29 Giga Watt-hours per year and 89.85 Giga Watt-hours per year respectively. In addition to this, the runoff river was proposed to be the appropriate scheme for all 7 potential sites. The potential sites have been also ranked and prioritized for further consideration based on different potential parameters and weighting these parameters as per their importance.