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UETCL lights up West Nile region
Joshua Karamagi, the UETCL managing director. PHOTO/T
What you need to know:
- The development marks the completion of a $100 million project, which enhances the reliability and quality of power supply, not only for West Nile but also for the broader northern region.
On the night of Wednesday, July 31, Arua sub-station was energized and ready to distribute power from the 132kV Kole-Gulu-Nebbi-Arua Transmission Line, which channels power from the Karuma and Achwa hydro-power plants to the entire West Nile region.
The development marks the completion of a $100 million project, financed by the World Bank, which constructed a 132kV powerline. This project significantly enhances the reliability and quality of power supply, not only for West Nile but also for the broader northern region.
For many years, well into the 21st Century, numerous districts in West Nile were not connected to the national grid and suffered from inadequate and unreliable power supply.
In Arua, for instance, the power would be good for 12 hours in a day, with the power suppliers shutting down power at night. But this power could be affected by weather or financial issues. Hopefully, this will now be a thing of the past, not only for the 25,000 power consumers in the region but for the thousands that will sign up in coming years.
This has been a long time coming. No one knows this more than the people of West Nile, who have suffered insufficient and irregular power supply. The reasons for the delay varied from land acquisition challenges, unpredictable weather conditions, and Covid-19 which affected the contractor’s mobilisation, among other factors.
The benefits of this development cannot be understated. There will be an improvement in the quality of life as people will be able to use electricity for lighting, cooking, and entertainment. New opportunities will emerge for businesses and households to improve income.
Sustainable industrialisation can begin, allowing West Nile to become a business hub for Eastern Congo, the Central African Republic, and beyond. We can also expect that tourism and the hospitality industries will emerge as major economic drivers in a region that is beautiful, with so many attractions and steeped in history Of course, there is still a lot of work to be done, before West Nile can realise the full benefit of more reliable power coming home. There will be a need to extend the existing distribution network, to bring
power from our facility into the homes and businesses of the region. People will also have to do their part to apply and sign up for connections.
In addition, beyond bringing economic activities to the people of West Nile, this new extension will be pivotal in Uganda meeting its obligations under the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP).The EAPP is a group of 13 countries stretching from Libya to Tanzania and from Somalia to DR Congo, committed to sharing their power resources, to stabilise the region’s electricity supply. Trade in electricity supply has grown sixfold to 3400 Gwh since 2005.
Already last year, we exported $44m worth of power, this is a recovery to pre-Covid levels. The Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) is proud to contribute to the socio-economic transformation of the country and looks forward to continued involvement in the future.
To the people of the West Nile region, the long wait is over and we wish them the best in their future endeavours.
Mr Joshua Karamagi is the CEO of the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (UETCL)
