UGANDA US$1M ELECTRICITY PROJECT GOES LIVES

A $1 million (Shs 3.7 billion) project to ensure reliable electricity supply to consumers in Butabika, Mutungo, Luzira and Kitintale has gone live.

This follows the installation and energising of a new transformer at power distributor Umeme’s substation in Port Bell, Luzira. The development means consumers such as the Uganda Prisons Service (Luzira Maximum Prison), Butabika Mental hospital, and businesses notably Cipla Quality Chemicals and Uganda Breweries as well as households served by the substation will experience fewer, if any, interruptions in supply.

“The customers will experience an improvement in supply,” Job Watti, Umeme’s projects investment manager, said according to an April 10, 2023 press statement.

He said before the upgrade, the smaller of the two transformers at the facility would disconnect as more power users turned on their electric appliances.

It did not help matters that in the past Port Bell substation was getting power from a facility that was already overloaded. Watti said the substation will now be receiving power from either the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) Luzira Industrial Park substation or the UETCL Lugogo substation.

Should there be a fault on either – and leading to supply challenges, while engineers fix the fault – consumers would be supplied through the other.

The utility has over the years been investing in upgrading transformers and conductors as well as replacing rotten wooden poles with fresh ones. Among other substations lined up for an operational capacity boost is Mbale substation, which has one transformer serving a load of 92 per cent of its capacity.

Best practice is that for a transformer to operate optimally, the load on it should not exceed 80 per cent its capacity. The plan is to install a second transformer at the Mbale substation so that in case the first has to undergo routine maintenance, or fails, the load is switched to the second, thus sparing the customers the inconvenience of prolonged outages.

In the case of the electricity supply industry, utilities seek the regulator’s authorisation to invest substantial amounts of cash in either new equipment or in upgrading the existing ones so that they stay ahead of growth in demand curve.

Now that many developers have invested heavily in power generation projects, and in the process increasing Uganda’s installed power generation capacity to 1,400 megawatts, it is important to increase connections and provide reliable power.

Umeme plans to connect an extra 240,000 prospects to the national electricity grid by the end of this year. As of December 31, 2022, the company was serving 1,757,563 customers, according to the company’s audited financial statements for 2022.