Uganda government allocates UGX 1.3 trillion to bolster electricity transmission, distribution

KAMPALA —Uganda Government has allocated UGX 1.3 trillion for Electricity interventions, Finance Minister Matia Kasaija has announced.

Delivering the 2023/2024 National Budget, Minister Kasaija also announced that the government will construct up to 761 km of transmission lines and associated power sub-stations to improve the stability and reliability of the networks.

“We will also build capacity of the Uganda Electricity Generation and Transmission companies to manage the generation and distribution networks after the expiry of the ESKOM and Umeme concessions,” Kasaija said.

He said power generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure have continued to expand in the previous years — noting that the country’s generation capacity increased to 1378.1 MW as at March 2023 from 1,343.9 MW in March 2022

This, he said, represents an increase of 34.3 MW.

With the commissioning of the Karuma Hydropower Project planned for September 2023, he said generation capacity will increase to 1978 MW.

The 6 MW Nyagak III Hydropower project is also due for commissioning by end of this month.

In transmission, a total of 417 km of transmission lines were added to the main grid during the year, bringing the total transmission line network to 4,011 Km.

To enable evacuation of power from the 600MW Karuma Hydropower project, the 248 km Karuma-Kawanda, the 55km Karuma-Olwiyo, and the 76km Karuma-Lira lines have been completed.