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