Electricity is a core ingredient in the drive to industrialisation, economic transformation and ultimate job creation A couple of months ago, days after joining the energy sector, I was very excited about a looming trip to one of the newest mini-power generation plants in this country known as Siti 2 in Bukwo district.
This trip was exciting in many ways because I was in the company of an Umeme technical team, led by its managing director Selestino Babungi and my media colleagues.
We set out from Kampala at 6:00am traversing through the districts of Jinja, Iganga, Namutumba, Budaka, Mbale, Sironko, Kapchorwa and eventually Bukwo.
Just 2km shy of the power generation plant, it began drizzling and in 10 minutes, our four-wheel drive vehicles came to a halt after skidding off the road. We tried everything but had to retreat to Mbale as the road ahead had been blocked by several other vehicles that had got stuck. We decided to abandon the journey opted to view the power plant from a distance. You can imagine what the engineers who had to deliver materials for that very important electricity evacuation line had to go through!
Our mission on that fateful trip was to assess works on the 125km line evacuating electricity to Mbale to power the region serving over 60,000 customers.
The good news is that the works on the electricity line progressed well as well as the road network and it was part of the upgraded Mbale substation project launched by President Yoweri Museveni with a cumulative investment of $17m (about sh64b).
This facility has improved electricity supply and reliability in the eastern region resulting from the integration of the new transmission 50MW substation at the Mbale Industrial Park.
The upgraded substation has created flexibility in supply from Tororo, Siti 2 and the 132KV UETCL substation.
The new development provides extra capacity as well as room for growth in industrial demand from 25MW to over 112.5MW.
Electricity is a core ingredient in the drive to industrialisation, economic transformation and ultimate job creation and improvement of household incomes as per the Government’s National Development Plan (NDP3). Prior to the upgrade, the Bugisu was experiencing constrained and unreliable electricity supply that the development of the area.
Umeme’s investment of $17m in the upgrade and construction of distribution infrastructure has increased the distribution capacity 4.5 times through an integration solution.It is part of the bigger investments in the sector to support improved […]