Blame game over power black-out

Engineers from the Bujagali Hydropower Plant and the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (UETCL) are trying to establish what interrupted power supply yesterday.

The interruption, which lasted from 12pm to 3pm, affected among other areas, Jinja, Masaka, Tororo, Mbale, Soroti, Lira, and Kampala.
So far, UETCL attributes the fault to the generator – Bujagali – while Bujagali attributes it to the transmitter.

“It is true that at 12:06 hours there was a trip-down at Bujagali, which affected the system,” Mr Kenneth Otim, the UETCL spokesperson, said.

However, the Bujagali resident construction manager, Bill Groth, said the power cut was due to an electrical fault on the transmission line.
“We had a line trip-down in the day. The engineers are trying to establish what caused it,” Mr Groth said.

The commissioning of the 250-megawatt Bujagali plant in October last year, boosted the country’s capacity to generate electricity, and thereby reduced load shedding, which was negatively impacting on businesses.

nwesonga@ug.nationmedia.com