MPs inspect electricity installations

Members of Parliament sitting on the Environment and Natural Resources Committee are on a five-day-long inspection of electricity installations in the Eastern, Northern and West Nile regions of the country. 

“Uganda has a medium-term target of generating 52,000 megawatts of electricity and we are here to see what is going on here, we want to understand what the government can do to help in achieving that target,” Dr Emmanuel Otaala, committee chairperson and West Budama South MP said at Kakira co-generation facility. 

The tour is organised in collaboration with the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL), Umeme, and others.

Otaala (centre), ERA officials and other committee members take a group photo at Kakira co-generation facility in Jinja on Monday. (Photo by Benon Ojiambo)

The committee visited the Kakira co-generation facility in Jinja and the Bufulubi solar plant in Mayuge district on Monday. 

They are expected to visit Mbale Industrial Park, Achwa hydropower plant in Pader district, the Achwa-Agago-Gulu transmission line and ongoing projects in the West Nile sub-region. 

In September, the government launched the new Energy Policy that will be the country’s development footprint for the sector for the next twenty or so years. 

Government is targeting to generate up to 52,482MW of electricity, from the current 1,378MW of installed generation capacity and this is expected to be achieved through both public and private investments in the sector.

This photo shows that Kakira’s electricity generation has slumped to 8.3MW from an installed capacity of 51MW due to lack of raw cane supply. (Photo by Benon Ojiambo)

Officials from Kakira co-generation informed the committee that their electricity generation has slumped in recent times due to a lack of cane supply from farmers. At the time of the visit, there was little or no activity at the sugar processing factory. 

The co-generation facility was generating an average of 8MW, way below its installed capacity of 51MW, something officials attributed to the failure of the government to implement the ‘zoning policy’ that has seen an emergency of new sugar processors in the region that have eaten into Kakira’s cane supply.