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New Shs16b sub-station to relieve stress on Kayunga Road, says Umeme
The new Umeme sub-station under construction in Njeru Municipality, Buikwe District as seen on December 14, 2023. It is projected to deliver at least 60MW to Kayunga Road upon completion at the end of December 2023. PHOTO/PHILIP WAFULA
What you need to know:
- The project is worth $4.4m fully funded by Umeme.
Power distributor Umeme has said the new $4.4m (about Shs16.5b) switching station being constructed in Buikwe District will relieve the stress exerted on Kayunga Road by the existing lines built long ago.
The West Bank Project, which started in September, will, upon completion at the end of December, evacuate 60MW from Owen Falls Dam to its current site in Mukwana Village, Njeru municipality, Umeme project investment manager Job Watti told Monitor.
“The project is worth $4.4m fully funded by Umeme,” Watti noted during a site tour on December 14.
Watti says Uganda currently has enough power-generating capacity.
“So, the issue now is about how to pick that power from where it is generated to where it is needed, and that is what we are doing,” he remarked.
Accordingly, power from the Owen Falls dam will be brought to the new switching station, and it is from there that they are going to have a distribution network to move either side, but with concentration along Kayunga Road which has the biggest load.
“Currently, the demand on Kayunga Road alone is coming to 44MW, meaning that we are really working towards satisfying that capacity and we shall have some headroom which will be available for future growth,” Watti observed.
According to him, from this switching station, plans are on to have four outgoing lines where some customers along Kayunga Road, including Yogi Steels, Pramukh Steels Limited, Upper Industrial, and Nyanza, will each have a dedicated power line.
The project targets both industrial and domestic consumers along Kayunga Road, although the biggest percentage are industrialists.
The project is being undertaken by Tetra Technical Services Limited, and currently stands at 80 per cent. However, the scope, Watti, says will extend backwards towards Nile Breweries and forward towards the Kayunga area.
Still on Thursday, Umeme chief technical officer Simbiso Chimbima revealed that the project was prompted by many upcoming industries on Kayunga Road which were all being fed by the Owen Falls dam that no longer has space for expansion.
“The project is meant to cater for the load growth that we are seeing in this area; we are also seeing that there is a lot of land as well, meaning there is additional growth that will be coming,” Chimbima said.
He added: “In terms of demand, Kayunga Road (the belt) is more than 30MW, hence the need for this station. We are also going to improve on reliability by providing some dedicated lines to our big industries.”
According to Chimbima, the project is meant to decongest the Owen Falls dam, provide better reliability for industrial customers, and reduce on their technical losses which were big. Over the next two weeks, he says Umeme will install the equipment and run the cable work.
But Umeme managing director Selestino Babungi, emphasized that the project has nothing to do with the company’s exit strategy with the firm’s 20-year concession due to end March 2025.
“Our investment, ability to serve, driving efficiencies will have to continue to the last day of our concession. This year, we are putting in Shs130b of investments in the country and this sub-station is going to cost us $4.4m which is Shs16.5b,” he said.
Adding: “We are seeing lots of growth on Kayunga Road and need to serve all these industries, reduce technical losses, but more importantly, we have to ready the distribution system to take on more power that is going to come from Karuma among other generation plants.”
