Gov't to Connect West Nile to National Grid by 2023- Minister Nankabirwa

The Minister of Energy and Mineral Development, Hon Ruth Nankabirwa has said that Government will connect West Nile sub region to the national power grid by March 2023.

Nankabirwa said this while appearing before the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources over the erratic power supply in West Nile. She told the committee that transmission projects to connect West Nile on the national grid are in progress and Government expects to fully have it connected by March 2023.

In the mean time, Nankabirwa said the Ministry of Energy has commenced arrangements with Electromaxx to remove fuel supply from the scope of contractual arrangements to another service provider who will ensure stable fuel supply to the thermal plant. Nankabirwa blamed the erratic power supply in West Nile to low water levels at River Nyagak.

“World over, Hydrology affects generation of power. You can’t exactly base on the exact amount of water that you will have at any given period because nature is nature and anything can affect the volumes of water…The speed at which we are experiencing climate change is very high,” Nankabirwa said.

The region is served by electricity from the 3.5MW Nyagak I hydropower plant operated by West Nile Rural Electrification Company Limited (WENRECO) and the 8MW thermal generators operated by Electromaxx Uganda Limited. However, the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) Executive Director, Dr Barirega Akankwasah disagreed with the minister saying, water levels at Nyagak River are over and above the required levels to generate surplus power.

“For Nyagak I and II, we conducted a full environmental and social impact assessment. The flow analysis was conducted and we confirmed that the water flow, quality and hydrology of the river and water availability for power generation are okay to allow hydropower generation with minimum impacts on the environment,” Dr. Barirega said.

“From our current monitoring, the river flow at the moment is averaging at 8.1cubic meters per second as of July 2022 which is way beyond the maximum requirement of the dam set at 6 cubic meters per second. So the river flow has no problem according to our assessment,” he added.