No more power cuts, says Umeme

Stephen Illungole, the Umeme spokesperson

What you need to know:

  • Umeme is yet to quantify losses caused by this singular vandalism.
  • Whereas the cost of rebuilding one tower is about Shs37m, Mr Birungi said the cost of load shedding is still indeterminate but it is huge.
  • Umeme continues to seek solutions towards the growing problem and now wants amendment of the 1999 Electricity Act to introduce stringent penalties for vandals.

Kampala. Umeme yesterday said power supply to areas surrounding Kampala has been normalised after Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) temporary installed vandalised electricity towers.
“It (load shedding) should be no more now. What that means is that they are able to pump more than 70 megawatts to Lugogo which is distributed to Mukono, Kampala and surrounding areas. If there is anybody who is still off, they should be able to reach us,” Mr Stephen Illungole, the Umeme spokesperson, said.

He was speaking on the sidelines of Umeme’s stakeholder engagement on the vandalism of electricity equipment in Kampala.
For more than a week now, it has been a candlelit affair for many Ugandans. Darkness engulfed parts of the country last Wednesday due to a collapse of four towers that evacuate two major circuits on Nalubaale-Kampala line as a result of vandalism.

Attacked lines
Owen Falls Dam delivers two power lines including Mawanda Road and Lugogo and it is here that Umeme supplies power around the city. Vandals attacked these two lines, each of which were loaded with about 70 megawatts.
“They attacked two towers. When you get a report that the power line is down, it does not matter which industry is in production, power had to be switched off,” Umeme manager stakeholder engagement, Mr David Birungi, said.

UETCL cut power supply to Lugogo 1 and 2 leading to a shortfall of 140 megawatts. This followed consecutive days of load shedding while priority of power supply was given to areas such as Ggaba to ensure constant water supply around the city.
The new round of vandalism comes two months after the power distributor reported it lost more than Shs1.5b to vandalism of 41 transformers in the first six months of 2018.

Mr Illungole said they have been more vandalism since and estimates that money lost is beyond that reported in July.