Country Running on Reserved Power Supply-ERA

Jinja, Uganda – The Chief Executive Officer of Electricity regulatory authority-ERA, Ziria Tibalwa, has said that power generation agencies are exhausting the reserved power sources to ensure that, there is the constant power supply in the whole country.

Turbines at the three main power supply plants of Nalubaale, Kiira, and Bujjagali were blocked by a floating island on Monday night. The blockage sent the country in a total blackout on Tuesday for close to one hour.

We regret to announce that the country is currently experiencing a national power blackout occasioned by a huge floating water weed island that stormed Nalubaale HPS this morning. All stakeholders are working round to stabilize the grid restate generation in a short while. pic.twitter.com/diR8h106Nu

— UEGCL (@UegclOfficial) April 14, 2020

Speaking to journalists after inspecting the floating island along River Nile, Tibalwa says that, the country is currently relying on 183 megawatts from Isimba dam, 30 megawatts from three solar plants, 52 megawatts from the Namanve based thermal power plant and 120 megawatts from two mini-hydro plants in the different parts of the country.

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Tibalwa adds that they are currently incapacitated to handle emergencies and responsible agencies are doing their best to ensure that, the three power dams are fully operational.

Thozama Gangi, the Managing Director of Eskom Uganda limited says that they have lobbied for excavators from the Ministry of Works to ensure that the clogged plants are removed to ensure operations of the affected power plants.

The Minister of Energy, Mary Kitutu faulted the anomaly on uncontrolled environmental degradation where residents have constantly setup illegal farms along the shoreline, forcing it to burst its’ banks and reclaim all its’ lost spaces that are forced to float on the lake.

(URN)