Uganda’s Power Plants to Come Online by the End of the Year

In a significant development alleviating some of East Africa’s chronic electricity shortages, the 250 megawatt Bujagali Hydropower plant will bring its first 50 megawatt unit online in November, and the following month Nyagak will begin producing 3.6 megawatts, adding an additional 53.6 megawatts to Uganda’s National Grid.

Uganda’s Minister for Energy and Mineral Development, Irene Muloni said, "The project is in its advanced stages and we are expecting the first unit of 50 megawatts to come online in November 2011 and the whole plant's 250 megawatts to be commissioned by April 2012. It is envisaged that these will be on board by the end of January 2012 and the construction of the project will take about four to five years therefore by 2016 we shall have Karuma's first unit come on line" Kampala’s East African Business Week reported.

Uganda's current generation capacity is 380 megawatts, which is only 10 percent of the target of 3800 megawatts laid out in Uganda’s National Development Plan (NDP). According to Muloni, studies for the 600 megawatt Karuma Hydropower Project and 600 megawatt Ayago power plant have also been finalized.

By. Charles Kennedy, Deputy Editor OilPrice.com