Uganda Power Distributor - Umeme relaxes power rations

Tuesday July 12, 2011

WORKS on the maintenance of the national electricity distribution network has been suspended to reduce power rationing, Umeme said yesterday.

“In order to limit the outages to the emergency loadshedding, Umeme has halted all maintenance works,” said Sam Zimbe, the firm’s general manager.

He said the suspension would continue until the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company (UETCL) sorts out the generation shortfall.

The announcement comes barely a week after two thermal electricity producers last week switched off their generators, causing an acute power scarcity and resumption of the daily 12- hour load-shedding.

Aggreko and Electromaxx shut down the generators after the Government failed to pay arrears, according Eriasi Kiyemba, the managing director of the transimission body.

Aggreko and Electromaxx shut down their generators after the Government failed to pay them about sh300b, causing an acute power shortage and resumption of the daily 12- hour load-shedding.

According Muloni, the Government owes the thermal power companies close to sh300b in arrears up to June 2011.

The two companies generate 70 mega-watts.

Zimbe, said the suspension of maintenance works would factor in urgently required work as a result of unplanned interruptions like faults.

He said this is intended to limit outages to the emergency load-shedding schedules and minimising the outage inconveniences.

By Ibrahim Kasita: The New Vision Newspaper

Umeme halts repairs to minimise power cuts

Tuesday July 12, 2011

UMEME has suspended all network maintenance works in order to limit power outages during the emergency load shedding period announced by the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company (UETCL).

The power distributor pointed out in a statement on Sunday that the suspension would factor in urgently required work.

The statement indicated that UETCL was in the final stages of resolving the generation shortfall that was announced earlier last week.

“In order to limit the outages to the emergency load shedding, Umeme has halted all maintenance works until UETCL sorts out the generation shortfall,” said Sam Zimbe, the Umeme general manager.

UETCL attributed the generation shortfall to “commercial predicaments,” which led to the shutdown of the Aggreko-Kira thermal plant and the Electromaxx-Tororo thermal plant, forcing Umeme to announce a daily 12-hour loadshedding schedule across the country.

“The demand forecasts initially used for the loadshedding schedule that was released were surpassed and have as a result been revised,” Zimbe said.

The New Vision