UETCL MD on vandalism, revamp of the company

Have you been able to screw down UETCL’s key deliverables for the year ending 2022? 

The general strategic approach we are talking about is to focus on the completion of projects currently before us so that we can return value to Ugandans. We are trying to see as much as possible to open our boundaries with interconnection projects.

We already have enough generation capacity and so we are trying to expound on that and we sell this generated power, one, to our neighbouring countries and most importantly, to also feed the industrial parks that are available including those that are yet to open. 

What we are concentrating on during this term is improve and strengthen our operational efficiency. Right now we are building quite much on the efficiency of our services to our main customers. 
We believe that with the efficient delivery of services, we will have timely compensation, timely execution and completion of projects.  

What is now on our sleeves is to complete the Kole-Gulu-Nebbi-Arua Line, because that is the line which will take power to West Nile. It comes from Kole, crosses to Gulu to Olwiyo through Anaka, and to Pakwach, Nebbi then to Arua. 

That line is scheduled to be completed by March 31, 2023 and we are also trying to ensure that we complete the Guluj-Agago hydropower plant evacuation line, which line is going to move from Gulu-Angagura-Aswa Dam, we are also completing in March 2023. 

Once that line is completed, it will have saved the government from the deemed energy burden that we have been paying off about $ 2.5 million (approximately Shs9.3Bn) per month. 

And we believe that is going to be a relief to the government and we are doing our best to make sure that the project is timely completed and commissioned. 

Once the electricity is terminated to the Gulu substation, the power is fed onto the national grid to boost supply locally in the Acholi sub-region and the entire country. 

Other lines open up the suppressed demand in the industrial parks around the central business districts, we are looking at the Iganga-Nmanve-Luzira Transmission Line which is expected to be completed this month, December 2022. 

There is also the Entebbe-Mutundwe Transmission Line including the Karuma-Lira Transmission line that we intend to complete and commission this month and the rest of the projects will follow. 
The Karuma-Kawanda 400KV line together with its substations (at Karuma and Kawanda) are all completed, 100 per cent and energized, so they are ready to evacuate and as I speak now, we are moving power to Karuma from Kawanda to keep the line energised. 

Those lines are ready, the moment the dam is ready to generate, we shall evacuate from Karuma using the Kawanda line. We will also be able to evacuate from Karuma to Olwiyo, that line is complete, the substation at both Karuma and Olwiyo is ready and our transmission team and now manning it. 

The line from Karuma to Lira is not yet complete, we are remaining with 2.8KM which much be complete by mid-December, so we shall also be able to have that leg of Lira ready to evacuate. 
Operationally, we have embarked on building the capacity of our team at UETCL to make sure it is a formidable team, highly skilled and trained, and also to make sure they remain competitive in the industry. 

We are also investing huge efforts in stakeholder management, we are doing our best to make sure we keep the face of the institution in doing what is supposed to be done and we shall be engaging several stakeholders to make sure UETCL continues to deliver its mandate.

Are there hurdles management sees in its way of operations?
There are challenges, just like in any other organisation but the good news is that they can always be overcome once we work together. 

The first challenge is around vandalism, it remains a critical issue to the sector and we are going to work with other stakeholders, security and the political establishments as well as the communities where we have such kind of infrastructure to ensure vandalism is addressed. 

While we have several internal issues (challenges) that we are now dealing with together with the contractors and the other stakeholders, the projects are delayed, and some of the reasons are arising from the acquisition of way leaves. 

So, we are going to work with the political establishment, working with the district, CAOs, local councils, and MPs, to ensure that corridors are secured and on time. 

As the acting CEO, I have a clear view of the businesses that lie ahead of me and it is supported by my vast knowledge of the sector, having been with the regulator, the distributor and now the transmitter.  
I have a clear view of what we need to do, UETCL has five licences, four from ERA, and one from the Uganda Communication Commission (UCC). 

In as much as those licences give UETCL the legal standing, the main visibility or the most critical activities that the government and the public would appreciate the role of UETCL is through project implementation. 

As a team, we are looking at boosting our operational efficiency, how we can do these faster, quick decision making, and implementation of targets and work plans, since my appointment in August, we immediately got together to form task forces that we are working with on the follow-up of projects.

When did the problems of vandalism of electricity transmission infrastructure become severe? 
At some time last year 2020, we started noticing quite a number of our towers losing members (angle bars), it started with the removal of a few pieces and increased steadily, so we had a team who continued to put those angles back, we coloured them differently, but of recent. 

This year, we started seeing another trend, where an entire tower is cut, falls down and in a space of three hours, they are unscrewed and taken away.

The vice is happening on energized lines and those that do not have current flowing in them
For August this year, a new trend slot in, where two of the four support legs are cut off and the tower falls off by itself, at that point we believed that the trend switched from vandalism to sabotage.

It has affected reliability, it has led to load shedding because whenever it would happen, it weakens our systems, to if the system is not well-interconnected, your system remains weak then you have no option but to start load shedding, and that happened when the recently hit Lugazi area, two towers fell but pulled down their neighbours (adjacent towers), in total we lost four towers there.

In recent weeks several arrests of suspects and recoveries of the vandalised tower parts were made. Do the arrests and recoveries reveal the trend and probable market for the stolen parts?  
Where the stolen steel materials end up, we yet don’t know, we have not yet zeroed down on a particular company buying these materials although we are working with the security agencies to track down this vice.

The security agents are still investigating, the good news is that we have some suspects arrested and they are helping us to identify who their markets are.

The Electricity Act provides penalties for those found with stolen electricity parts, now that we have these suspects, they should be able to lead us.

These damages are symbolic of the losses worth billions of shillings that UETCL will have to swallow to put back the vandalized transmission lines to work once again.

For the past 15 months indicates that up to 52 electricity transmission towers have been destroyed by vandals along the corridor between Bujagali Hydropower Dam and Kakira Sugarcane plantation.
While 50 out of the 52 towers have been vandalized with most angles (members) taken, 3 of the 50 towers have collapsed and now require replacement.

The same data also points out that transmission cables spanning more than 16 km in length have been cut off and stolen by vandals including the conductors, and insulators among others.

What do these losses imply in terms of costs to the company? 
The company will require more than Shs37.87 billion to secure monopoles as an alternative to replace the destroyed Lattice steel towers that have turned out to be vulnerable to vandals. 

The associated with the prolongation of the contractor in form of claims translates to an additional Shs1.5 billion.

That money is only the cost of replacing the stolen materials; we have not counted the cost of dismantling, transporting and the cost of the contractor redoing the same work. We are now losing times two because of the lines we still need, you have the cost of labour to put the towers down.

But painfully, the Shs38 billion is enough to build another 10km of transmission corridor or connect an entire sub-county to electricity.

The Energy and the Trade ministries are yet to strike a compromise on possibly banning or regulating scrap metal trade in the country as a measure to curb the vice. Is the ban a step in the right direction? 

That is a good idea, we are in support. First of all, we look at Kenya, when Kenya banned the sales of scrap, which marked the end of vandalism in Kenya.

Look at other countries where scrap is regulated or banned, and the ones dealing in it, are registered and are responsible. That would also move a long way in solving the problem because that market is not regulated.

We believe that the tough law on vandalism is impacting. Since June 2022 once the Electricity Amendment Act 2022 became operational, UETCL has secured three convictions.

The amended act has produced tough punitive measures against vandalism. For example, Section 85, Sub-section 3 of the amended electricity act provides for punitive measures to a person convicted of having stolen materials of conductors or towers and is given a fine of 100,000 currency points (approximately Shs2Billion).

The same law also provides that a company that is also found to have purchased stolen electricity equipment be fined up to 20,000 currency points (approximately Shs400Million) or be sentenced not exceeding 10 years or both.

View...Dealing with vandals

The security agents are still investigating, the good news is that we have some suspects arrested and they are helping us to identify who their markets are.

The Electricity Act provides penalties for those found with stolen electricity parts, now that we have these suspects, they should be able to lead us.
These damages are symbolic of the losses worth billions of shillings