With the establishment of new cement factories in Tororo, the power utility Umeme is building new facilities, upgrading distribution lines, and making other improvements to strengthen service reliability and help meet power demand in the region.
Umeme is investing about $5million in the refurbishment of Tororo cement and Tororo Nyakesi substations
Selection Babungi, the Managing Director of Umeme said “We have a dedicated power line from Tororo Nyakesi Main Substation providing a comparative advantage over the former 1x33kV ACSR100 7 km line from Tororo Main substation to an additional 10MW at Tororo Cement Industries (TCI)” Babungi said
Adding that the two projects cost Shs14 billion and Shs1.6 billion respectively
Babungi further stated “our biggest customer countrywide Tororo Cement Industries increasing its installed capacity, this informed the decision on the investment of an additional 10MW,” Babungi said
The works here have included construction of a double socket concrete pole for a route of 6.8Kms.
The refurbishment also involves the use of concrete poles, which do not rot, are reliable and have a long live span. This is to ensure stable supply for the region whose electricity consumption has doubled the previous capacity in terms of production and industries establishment
The works involved supporting the ever growing load, which necessitated the increasing of the feeder carriage capacity through conductor size uprate
Mr. Babungi also said, these investments are set to boost industrialization in the area as it will power an industrial park coming up at Nyakesi
“Hima Cement has set up a plant requiring 12MVA and National Cememnt another requiring MVA. This means that half of the 40MVA capacity that Umeme is installing is already taken. The capacity works have included installation of two transformers of 20 MVA each, seven switch gears of 33kv and 5 switch gears of 11kv”
“We need big industries to take up this power. As a country, to model for the new generation, we should model it around industrial and commercial consumers because when you use power for industrial development and commercial consumption, it will lead to job creation and economic development which puts money in the pockets of households. That’s why we are advocating industrial development, commercial production, value addition and cottage industries.”
Because of Umeme’s operational efficiency, the energy sector can comfortably cover up to 75% of its generation costs, thus attracting private generation capacity into the country
