Albert Zeufack, the World Bank Division Director for Angola, Burundi, DRC and Sao Tome and Principe said in a statement, “This is an opportunity to write a new page in DRC’s development story, one that harnesses the country’s rich resources to lift millions of people out of extreme poverty.”

“By supporting DRC’s vision for Inga through this program and complementary investments in governance, education and infrastructure, the World Bank Group, together with partners, can significantly contribute to converting DRC’s natural resources into economic growth, jobs, and human development for the Congolese people,” he said.

Access to energy is one of the most significant roadblocks to DRC’s economic transformation and job creation at scale. Only 21% of Congolese people have access to electricity, but this is set to change.  Under DRC’s National Energy Compact, aligned with the Africa-wide Mission 300 initiative, the government is embarking on a range of investments and reforms designed to increase power generation, attract private sector investors and improve the performance of the national energy utility, with the goal of lifting electricity access to 62% by 2030.

The Inga 3 Development Program will boost the pace of institutional change and provide much-needed power generation capacity to sustain the country’s energy progress beyond 2030.

The first phase of the Inga 3 Development Program will focus on local development opportunities in Kongo Central, to improve the living conditions and economic prospects of approximately 100 communities (1.2 million people) living close to Inga. These communities will directly benefit from improved basic services and infrastructure that they have prioritized, including clean water, distributed renewable energy and rural roads. This will create economic opportunities and jobs. Additionally, skills development and higher education training will build local capacity to fill jobs created by Inga

Bob Mabiala, head of the Agency for the Development and Promotion of Grand Inga (ADPI-DRC) said, “The electricity generation potential at the Inga site is one of the largest in the world. The development of Inga 3’s hydropower will be transformative for DRC. By increasing access to clean, renewable and affordable energy for Congolese households and industries, it will serve as a motor for inclusive growth and jobs. Laying solid technical and governance foundations and earning community support will be essential to realize this challenge.”

The World Bank’s financial support and technical assistance will help ADPI-DRC manage the Inga Program and finalize preparations for Inga 3, the third plant at a site on the Congo River that includes two older hydropower plants which provide most of DRC’s electricity. This includes support for detailed studies, capacity building, and project structuring. Inga 3’s scale – potentially generating between 2 to 11 GW of power, and its technical and stakeholder complexity, mean that its preparation and construction will take around a decade and require government, development partners, the private sector, and civil society to come together.

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Speaking during the “Great Switch” the event where electricity distribution returned to the government, Nankabirwa lavished praise on Umeme for being the tip of the spear of reforms that launched Uganda’s electricity subsector on a trajectory of unprecedented growth. But the end private concessionaires, which first saw Eskom return the Nalubaale power station to Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited two years ago, and now Umeme, would not set in a rapid reset of the industry she assuered.

Electricity distributor Umeme handed electricity distribution assets back to Uganda’s Ministry of Energy March 31, marking the end of a 20-year concession, and an era that revolutionised electricity distribution in the country.

Government run Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited UEDCL, the outfit from which Umeme inherited power distribution two decades ago, is back in the saddle, promising to better Umeme’s record. Responsibility for electricity distribution in the country reverted to UEDCL at the stroke of midnight on March 31, with managing director Paul Mwesigwa steep KPIs that include meeting the expectations of sceptical consumers regulator ERA’s target of 0.3 million new electricity connections in the nine months to December 31.

The symbolic handover, which preceded a technical handover that happened at 23:59 on March 31, was witnessed by hundreds of guests, with officials praising Umeme for expanding the distribution network and lifting electricity access from 5pc of the population in 2005, when it took over, to 25pc at handover. Umeme also enhanced service levels and achieved sharp reductions in commercial and technical losses. Unbilled energy was reduced from 38pc at the start of the concession to 16pc at the time of exit.

An ebullient Paul Mwesigwa, the managing director at UEDCL, said they hope to slash commercial losses to 14.92pc of energy received within the first year, with a focus on installed prepaid metering for public facilities such as government offices, military installations, prisons and public hospitals. These account for the bulk of the remaining 10pc of consumers on the network that pay for energy after consumption, resulting in huge arrears of unsettled bills.

Mwesigwa said UEDCL, which had been distributing power in areas outside the Umeme concession, was well positioned to meet the challenge because presently, 99.9pc of its customers were on prepaid metering. Equally, the company has previously taken over five concessions from private distributors in rural areas.

“Energy in the rural areas where we have been operating is not subsidised but the business has been self-sustaining under UEDCL. So, I am confident we have the technical competences to take over distribution from Umeme,” Mwesigewa said.

Despite pending resolution of the final concession buyout amount, Umeme agreed to handover the distribution network after receiving USD 118, 385,603, against its claim of USD 234 million.

“Today marks the conclusion of a 20-year journey that @UmemeLtd has walked with the people of Uganda in powering homes, businesses, and industries. It has been a period of growth, transformation, and innovation in the energy sector,” Managing Director Selestino Babungi said in remarks at the handover.

He cited USD 850 million that has been invested to revamp and expand the distribution network and improve reliability of power supply. Revenue is realised from 84pc of energy received. But with demand growing at 10.4 per annum Babungi warned that without investment in new generation capacity, Uganda was headed for an electric energy deficit in as little as the next three years.

“We hand over the baton to UEDCL with best wishes for continued progress and success,” Babungi concluded.

The non-renewal of Umeme’s concession marks a major policy shift as the Uganda government backtracks towards reconsolidate its electricity assets. Generation, Transmission and Distribution, which were spun into separate entities just before Umeme and Eskom were concessioned to takeover generation and distribution.

In October 2022, cabinet passed a decision to remerge the power sector. But speaking at transfer of distribution from Umeme to UEDCL, Ruth Nankabirwa, the minister for energy who praised Umeme for a job well-done and a proactive stance during the transition, said she would not be rushed to reconsolidate the industry and would bide her time to ensure every single step in that direction is taken after conclusive studies.

Allaying fears of power generation falling behind demand, Nankabirwa said plans to develop the 400Mw Kiba power station were at an advanced stage.

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The power station went off the grid following a flooding incident in the power house on August 8.

In a statement published in the local press today, Ms Ruth Nankabirwa, the minister for energy, said the number two generation set had been restored and was supplying 45Mw to the grid. The statement was preceded by a video on Twitter Friday showing  the unit running.

“The operator, Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited UEGCL, is working around the clock to achieve full restoration of the plant by the end of August 2022,” she added.

The plant’s total outage had plunged the country into a power rationing schedule, prompting the activation of a 50Mw thermal plant, purchases of 20Mw from sugar miller Kakira Sugar Works; and plans to replace part of the lost capacity with imports of 60Mw from neighbours’ Kenya.

But officials now say the availability of 45Mw and the possibility of another unit becoming available in the next few days, dampens the need for imports. Further rationalization of the network would be explored instead, they said.

Engineers are bringing the plant back on-grid by draining the powerhouse and blow-drying affected equipment. They have also by-passed the electronic control system and the plant is being operated manually, said a source familiar with the situation.

“We have adequate manpower. The only thing that changes is that instead of relying on the automated system to operate the plant, we shall be watching over everything and intervening manually,” the source added.

Nankabirwa said August 16, that the emergency shutdown at Isimba was occasioned by a water ingress incident on August 8, which left the powerhouse flooded.

“The shutdown was undertaken as a safety procedure to ensure safety of staff and protection of the electro-mechanical equipment. The Operator, Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited UEGCL, is undertaking appropriate measures to restore power production and we expect generation to resume within three weeks,” she told media August 16.

The power rationing that followed the loss of 183Mw, raised questions about capacity reserves within Uganda’s generation system. Whereas peak demand, including export commitments stands at just 790Mw, composite installed capacity presently stands at 1250Mw.  Officials say the effective generation capacity along the River Nile, has been impacted by the long dry spell which resulted in lower water permit allocations.

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Until then, Arua City, the major population centre in West Nile, has depended on expensive off-grid thermal generation and intermittent supply from the troubled Nyagak mini-hydro power station.

Speaking during a whistle-stop inspection tour of public energy projects in the Acholi and West Nile regions, Ruth Nankabirwa, the Minister for Energy and Mineral Development, said Uganda’s largest power station would be commissioned next year and will evacuate power to four substations in – Arua, Lira, Olwiyo and Kawanda, just outside Kampala.

The Olwiyo substation has been developed with the capacity to accommodate planned power generation developments at Ayago, Oryang and Kiba falls. The substation will be linked to Gulu and Elegu Substations, for onward transmission to South Sudan. It will serve the West Nile region, through transmission lines to Pakwach, Arua, Paidha and the rest of the region, Nankabirwa told the residents at Purongo Primary School in Nwoya district and the political leaders from Arua district leaders in Arua city .

High energy lines to the substations are under different stages of completion with the 260-tower transmission line to Arua now past Pakwach. This will be the first time Arua, the isolated grid in West-Nile will be connected to the national grid.

Nankabirwa expressed satisfaction with the progress towards rectification of defects at Karuma by the contractor. Launched in 2013, the project was supposed to have been commissioned three years ago. But it has been beset by a catalogue of problems including cracks in the concrete super structure, hydraulic leakages and defective cabling.

Prime contractor Sino Hydro who won the turn key contract at USD 1.7 billion including transmission lines, has been forced to fix the defects after a new supervising consultant was hired.

“I have come here to see the defects we have been reading about. The work is huge. Initially, the contractor bundled all the cables together. Staff houses were supposed to be ready before construction of the dam started, but they are not yet ready,” Nankabirwa said after a tour of the project.

Project Manager Albert Byaruhanga, revealed that the defects include mechanical installations, electrical cables and general cabling. Some of the cables procured by the contract were below international standards and the specifications in the contract.

Eng. Irene Bateebe, the new Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Energy, blamed the first owner’s engineer for failing to investigate, verify and certify the work done.

“We were let down by the first owner’s engineer but we have subsequently hired a better supervisor who investigated the defects and put in place a robust correction regime. We are now confident we shall commission this project in June 2022,” Bateebe said.

Nankabirwa instructed the contractor to bring on board additional technical resources to ensure the commissioning date for the plant does not slip past June 2022.

“We must deliver this power station is delivered to the people of Uganda as promised and with all defects rectified. We must energize all the transmission lines that have been erected,” she said.

Nankabirwa told stakeholders that when Karuma is added to the national grid, it will stabilise power supply to the northern West Nile regions, unlocking their economic potential.

“The government is conscious of the potential in the region, including tourism, agriculture and cross border trade, which can only be harnessed with a stable and adequate power supply,” she said.

The Minister urged political leaders in the region to sensitize the people about power generation, transmission and distribution- so that they appreciate and understand what government is doing for them, own and protect the electricity infrastructure from vandalism.

She was accompanied on the tour by the Minister of State for Minerals Hon. Peter Lokeris, Eng. Ziria Tibalwa Waako the CEO of the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) and Dr. Badru Kiggundu the Chairman of the Karuma Project-Presidential Steering Committee.

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Multiple sources say that Uganda has completed its side and powered the line up to the Mirama Hills interconnection point but the Rwandan side is not technically ready to receive energy.

“Our line is energised from Mbarara to Mirama Hills but the other side is not ready to receive power,” Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited Communications Manager Pamela Nalwanga, told 256BN.

She did not volunteer any further information and this news site was not able to get comment from Rwanda.

However, the Nile Basin Organisation in the February 2020 edition of its NELSAP (Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Programme) Newsletter, also confirms the readiness of the Ugandan side and says commissioning should happen during 2020.

“In order to improve access to electricity in NEL countries, NELSAP-CU is promoting increased cross-border sharing of energy and power. This year (2020), commissioning of the Uganda (Mbarara/Mirama)-Rwanda (Shango) power interconnection and synchronization of the interconnection between the electric grids of Burundi – DR Congo – Kenya – Rwanda – Uganda will take place.

“Initial power trading through the lines between Uganda and Rwanda is planned to commence in 2020 once the Rwanda – Uganda Interconnector is commissioned into operational service,” says NELSAP.

The organisation that is at the forefront on the African Development Bank funded project adds that “on the Uganda side, construction of both the line and the Mbarara substation are complete and all facilities for interconnection with Rwanda are ready and the line has been energized up to the Rwanda border.”

Behind schedule by nearly four years, the delays in completion of the line have partly fed into tensions between the two neighbours, with one side suspecting economic sabotage by the other.

NELSAP reports that the power grids between Kenya and Uganda are in synchronized operation, just as in the case between Rwanda, Burundi and part of the Eastern D.R Congo at Ruzizi.

“The interconnection between Rwanda and Uganda was the missing link, whose commissioning will realize parallel operation of the electric grids of the five countries namely; Burundi, D.R Congo, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

NELSAP-CU together with EAPP with support from USAID are working on modalities for coordinated and smooth synchronized operation of the interconnected grid system in the NEL. Key areas being addressed are protection schemes, interconnection switching operations, outage requests, fault detection and clearing, synchronization, telecommunications, dispatch/operational procedures, coordination of maintenance schedules and regional power trade as per the East Africa Power Pool (EAPP) Interconnection Code.”

NELSAP says that it is working with the countries and the EAPP  to put in place working groups made up of planning, dispatching, protection and telecommunications engineers from Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda to to facilitate commissioning of the project and synchronization of the networks of the concerned countries.

It explains that these activities fall under the interconnection of the electric grids of the Nile Equatorial Lakes Countries project that covers Burundi, DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda that is being managed by NELSAP-CU on behalf of the countries. The project involves construction of 930km of overhead transmission lines with 17 substations.

The project aims to improve the socioeconomic welfare of the people and promote economic development and the environment in project countries through increased availability of affordable electric energy through increased cross-border sharing of energy. Other transmission lines that have been completed under the project include the 220kV Rwanda – DR Congo transmission line which went live three years ago initially at 110kV.

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Between April and June, domestic consumers will now pay UGX /Kwh 250 (less than one US) for the first 15 units and UGX/kWh 760.2 (20 US cents) for any additional electricity. This is slightly lower than the UGX/KWh 769 paid previously for the first quarter.

Umeme is the listed electricity distributor, currently holding a 20-year operating concession that ends during 2025. However the company, with just over a million customers, has already submitted an application to ERA for an extension.

“These 15 units are enough for a customer to light a bulb, charge a phone and watch TV. So, a customer in the village may only need those units for a month. We are very positive that that cost is very affordable for most people,” Ziria Tibalwa Waako the ERA Chief Executive Director has said.

She said electricity prices will continue to come down for all users in future once more people are connected to the national grid. Recently Isimba Dam was officially opened by President Yoweri Museveni adding another 183 MW.

She said, “Right now, we generate more power than what we are consuming, but this is not a problem. Having more electricity is good for investment promotion. We are also exporting some of this power to our neighbours and we are sure in future once we have connected more people to our national power grid, consumption will go up.”

Commercial consumers will be charged UGX/Kwh 875.6 on-peak and UGX/Kwh 416.2 off peak, this is slightly lower than UGX/Kwh 884.8 on peak and UGX/Kwh 433.9 off peak that they were charged for the first quarter of 2019

Medium industrial consumers will pay UGX/Kwh 783.0 on peak and UGX/Kwh 371.7 off peak compared to Shs/Kwh 790.8 on peak and UGX/Kwh 388.6 off peak charged previously.

Large industrial consumers will pay UGX/kW 487.2 on peak and UGX/Kwh 241.7 compared to UGX/Kwh 490.9 and UGX/Kwh 259.1 respectively.

The Extra Large industrial consumers will pay UGX/Kwh 414.3 on peak and UGX/Kwh 205.5 off peak  compared to UGX/Kwh 415.2 and UGX/Kwh 225.0 charged previously

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Financed by Chinese credit, Isimba is the fourth publicly financed generation facility in Uganda alongside the 380MW Nalubaale Kiira complex at the mouth of the Nile and the 600MW Karuma power station that is also nearing completion further downstream of the river.

The launch of Isimba, which will have one of the lowest feed in tariffs puts the country on course to deliver on President’s Museveni’s goal of a $0.05 tariff for industrial users. Speaking last week, energy minister Irene Muloni said combined with the 600MW from Karuma, the base tariff will shrink by some 17pc.

The power station which has been undergoing reliability and functional tests since December 2018 was injecting an average of 122MW daily into the grid over the period.

Uganda’s power generation capacity has rapidly expanded in recent years, overtaking demand by some 340Mw across the system that includes hydro, thermal and solar as well as contributions by sugar millers.

Isimba will take available capacity to 1200MW, adding to the agency to expand distribution. Just over 23 percent of Uganda’s population is connected to the power grid. There is however an ongoing drive by multiple agencies to take this to 28pc over the next five years by connecting an additional 300,000 rural households to the grid..

Expanding offtake holds the key to bringing down the retail tariff, currently trending at $0.19. Analysts say without bringing new users on to the grid, existing consumers will have to shoulder the burden of supporting repayments of the $570 million spent on the project.

Previous efforts to reduce the tariff have been stymied by the high input cost from Bujagali which peaked at 13 cents/Kwh. A renegotiation of the loan tenure  has ince brought the tariff down to 9cents but Museveni who wants it reduced further has proposed buying out the private investors whose concession still has another 16 years to go.

Unlike the privately run 250Mw Bujagali hydro power station and the Nalubaale/Kiira complex that is under concession to Eskom, the publicly owned Uganda Electricity Generation Company UEGCL, will be operaring Isimba and Karuma.

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The money is towards construction of a 14 MW river generation station at Kigagati on the Kagera River in south western Uganda.

PIDG encourages and mobilises private investment in infrastructure in the frontier markets of sub-Saharan Africa, south and south-east Asia, to help promote economic development and combat poverty.

Since 2002, PIDG has supported 170 infrastructure projects to financial close, mobilising $22.9 billion in private sector investment and supporting new or improved infrastructure for 231 million people. PIDG is funded by donors from seven countries comprising of  the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Germany and the World Bank Group.

The KPC plant is to consist of an 8.5 metre high dam of 300 metres in length, three turbines of 5.5 MW each and associated earthworks control and plant roots allied infrastructure connecting the plant to switch lands in Uganda and Tanzania.

According to the agreement, the generated power will be fully bought off by the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company before half of it is sold off to Tanzania.

KPCL is also backed by the $205 million Africa Renewable Energy Fund managed by Berkeley Energy, another vehicle involved with developing renewable power solutions in Asia and Africa.  The Kikagati plant is the 10th renewable energy development backed by EAIF in Uganda.  To date 138 MW of renewable generation has been financed by the EAIF representing a total investment of $123 million.

However, Uganda still has the lowest rates of electrification with average national rates of 20%, falling as low as 6% in many rural areas.

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Legislators sitting on the Natural Resources Committee of the Ugandan parliament meeting in Jinja over the weekend, passed a resolution recommending termination of the concession that still has four years to go. The committee arrived at the decision after learning that Eskom which is reaping a 12pc return on investment  annually had skimped on injecting capital into the plants and instead focused on just keeping them operational.

Although the concessionaire was supposed to invest $100 million in refurbishing the plants, no major refurbishment has been undertaken on the past fifteen years. Eskom has instead invested $25 million, mainly in multiple studies and upgrading the control system from analogue to digital. Another $4 million is scheduled for investment this year.

Some generation units have been down for half a decade while the physical structure of the power house at Nalubaale continues to deteriorate with extensive cracking.

Asset owner Uganda Electricity Generation Company UEGCL says Eskom has focused on operation rather than maintenance of the power stations.

“A power station such as Nalubaale would need major refurbishment works every seven to ten years. No works of that scope have been implemented by Eskom for the 15 years they have managed the station,” UEGCL chief executive Harrison Mutikanga told the committee.

Ms. Thozama Gangi, the Managing Director of Eskom Uganda said studies had shown that the cracking in the walls of the powerhouse was caused by Alkaline Silicate Reaction ASR, rendering mechanical intervention s redundant. She revealed that multiple consultants had been hired to study the problem and answers were due.l

Incensed legislators question the value Eskom added to Uganda when the mother company back home in South Africa was on the verge of bankruptcy after failing to deliver on its mandate.

Eskom won a 20 year concession operate and maintain the twin Kiira and Nalubaale hydropower stations at the mouth of the river Nile until 2023. The two stations have a combined installed capacity of 380MW and at 1.5cents per megawatt remain the cheapest source of electric power in Uganda 900MW generation system.

Eskom says it plans to invest another $26 million over the next three years but legislators wonder which it is ramping up investment towards the end of the concession.

UEGCL says without intervention, the power house has a useful economic life of just ten years left. Because of its low feed-in tariff, power from Eskom has been used to dilute the tariff from the 8cents charged by Bujagali and a number of thermal and cogeneration projects run by sugar millers.

“The choices are stark. We either decide to invest in the extension of Nalubaale’s lifespan for another thirty years or decommission it in a decade. That would mean losing the moderating influence of this cheap source of power on tariffs,” Mutikanga said.

The aged Nalubaale power station, originally commissioned in 1954, also plays another important role. It keeps the entire system’s reserve capacity that kicks in event of surges.

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Reliability tests under which  each of the four generation units has been run continuously for 28 days are complete and engineers are now running the power plant at different output configurations. The power station has been supplying an average of 122MW daily from three turbines with one held in reserve. The full Kaplan turbine blades can be adjusted to output power as demanded.

The fourth in a cascade of five power stations the upper reaches of the White Nile, Isimba is just over 30 kilometres downstream of the  250MW privately developed Bujagali power station.

Output from Isimba, alongside a 600MW sister power plant that is still under construction at Karuma is expected to dilute the high consumer tariffs currently in excess of ten cents for domestic consumers and 5.3 cents for industrial users.

President Museveni is targeting a commercial tariff of 5 cents but the efforts have been stymied by the high input tariff from Bujagali which peaked at 13 cents/Kwh. A renegotiation of the loan tenure to brought the tariff down to 9cents but Museveni who wants it reduced further has proposed buying out the private investors whose concession still has another 16 years to go.

Isimba, and Karuma which opens later this year will bring installed capacity along the Nile to 1413 Mw creating a surplus of nearly 800MW.

The government has recently launched a drive to connect another 300,000 rural users to the grid but experts say industrial consumption needs to ramp up to maximise utilisation.

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