A prolonged drought in Rwanda and Tanzania has significantly lowered water levels on Lake Victoria, affecting hydropower generation in Uganda, the Ugandan minister of energy said on Tuesday. As a result, Energy Minister Syda Bumba said, load shedding had been increased across the country.
Load shedding means cutting-off the electric current on certain lines when the demand becomes greater than the supply.
Bumba said global warming had also increased the rate of evaporation on the lake, reducing the amount of water available for use by the country’s two hydropower stations, Kiira and Nalubaale, near the source of the River Nile.
”The prolonged drought in the region in both Rwanda and Tanzania, where many of the tributaries start from, has had an effect on the amount of water flowing downstream [of the] River Nile and consequently, our two power stations have been underperforming by 50MW,” Bumba said. ”This is a serious reduction, in commercial terms, and that is why we have had load shedding in all civic centres.”
She added that every producer was losing one day of production every four days, except for those located in the main commercial centres.
”We are negotiating with Kenya for an arrangement of importing power during the day, so that we could reduce load shedding during that time and we hope to come up with something in the next two weeks,” Bumba said.
She did not say how much power Kenya might provide.
The Uganda Electricity Generation Company had warned in a recent press statement that the load shedding was likely to increase.
”At present, with demand exceeding supply capacity, we have overstretched the capacity that is available,” it said.
Bumba admitted that rural Uganda was energy-deficient, but said that a few projects were at hand, including some aimed at generating 50 to 75MW of power using municipal waste, and to produce geothermal electricity in some areas of the country.
”We hope that these sources will address the issue of over reliance on hydropower,” Bumba said.
”We are also looking at more hydropower from smaller rivers across the country to feed their localities with electricity.”
Other projects include the 250-megawatt Bujagali dam, downstream from the current stations. This project, which will cost $530-million, has been mired in controversy, not only for lack of competitive bidding, but also because the terms of the contract between the company and the government were not disclosed.
The project has also been opposed by environmentalists concerned that the dam would drown the Bujagali Falls. – Irin