The Government of Uganda is currently working on a plan for Uganda-South Sudan electricity interconnection project according to Valentine Katabira, the Managing Director at the Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL), a parastatal company whose primary purpose is to make bulk electricity purchases and transmit the electricity along high voltage wires to local and foreign distribution points.
The proposed project is in line with an initiative established by countries within the East African Community (EAC) bloc under the Eastern Africa Power Pool to interconnect their electricity grids to take advantage of excess capacity within the network.
The move seeks to help countries with insufficient capacity to access the excess power elsewhere at a relatively affordable cost.
Expectations for the project
The Uganda-South Sudan electricity interconnection project is supposedly expected to be completed next year. It will allow Uganda to export electricity to the neighboring republic of South Sudan which has one of the lowest electricity access, with more than 90 per cent of the population lacking access to electricity.
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Additionally, over 70 per cent of businesses in the East African country reportedly depend on diesel-powered generators to operate, while most families rely on kerosene to light up their homes.
On the other hand, Uganda generates approximately 1,200 megawatts with local demand of 600 megawatts, which creates a surplus of about 600 megawatts. Officials say that the East African country is expected to add another 300 megawatts with the completion of Karuma Hydro Power Dam.
With the completion of the Uganda-South Sudan electricity interconnection project, South Sudan will join other countries such as Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where Uganda exports electricity to.
