The Ugandan government says its 600MW Karuma dam hydropower project, on the River Nile, will commence generating electricity this June. The generation will commence in phases due to damage on some transmission lines, pushing back timelines for distribution.
The launch date will not be adjusted, in spite of the technical challenges on the project in the past months, according to officials working on the project.
“The commissioning date remains unchanged,” said Proscovia Njuki, the Uganda Electricity Generation Company Ltd chairperson. In his latest report released last December, Uganda’s Auditor General — for the third year in a row — cast doubt on the commissioning of the $1.7 billion hydropower project within the timelines, citing delayed land procurement to give right of way for transmission lines to evacuate the power from Karuma.
“I noted that the completion of land acquisition process or the Resettlement Action Plan for the 132kV Karuma-Lira Transmission Line and Karuma Dam Reservoir, remain outstanding,” says the report.
However, Pamela Byoruganda, spokesperson of Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited, said only the 66km Karuma-Lira 132kv line will be delayed due to repairs after vandals damaged 26-km worth of power transmission infrastructure.
“It’s significant damage, and so the timelines for this line are being set back,” she said.
The Karuma-Lira transmission line was slated for completion in December 2021.
