The Government has switched on the 14 megawatts power plant in Isingiro district with the hope of stabilising the power supply in Ankore and Kigezi regions.
The First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the East African Affairs, Rebbeca Alitwala Kadaga commissioned Kikagati-Murongo Hydro Power Plant that is found on River Kagera along the Uganda Tanzania Borderline in Kikagati Village, Kikagati Town Council Wednesday.
Construction of the plant followed a bilateral agreement Uganda entered with Tanzania in 2015. However, implementation of the project started in 2017 making it the first cross-border Infrastructure project undertaken by Uganda and Tanzania.
Speaking at the commissioning exercise, the State Minister for Energy and Mineral Development, Opolot Okasayi said that the project will improve the power supply in the region noting that the government has started constructing a transmission line from Kikaati to Mirama Hills through to Kabale district to ease the evacuation of the electricity generated.
He said through the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited, the government has signed an agreement with Tanzania Electricity Supply Company and the power generators Berkley Energy to purchase the power generated at the plant and equally share it equally with each country getting 7 megawatts.
He said that in the agreement Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited shall be the lead power purchaser at a leveled Generation Tariff of US Cents 8.5 per unit, which is about 320 Uganda Shillings, making it the cheapest in the country.
Julius Wandera, the Cooperate Affairs Manager Electricity Regulatory Authority, says that the power plant was added to the national grid in February this year when it started generating power commercially. He said they are still waiting for Tanzania side to complete its transmission lines.
The First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Affairs, Rebbeca Alitwala Kadaga said that the government had returned the power plant that was destroyed during the liberation war in 1979.
She said that the power plant was commissioned at the right time when the government is rolling out the parish development model that aims at value addition and challenged the local communities to set up industries that will add value to their agricultural products.
The Project General Manager, Daniel Theron said that they exclusively financed the Construction of the plant at US 100 Million dollars about 380 Billion Ugandan Shillings. Its commissioning has now increased Uganda’s power generation capacity to 1184 Megawatts from 1,177Megawatts.URN.
