March 21st marked the commissioning of the highly anticipated hydro power station on Isimba Dam. The dam is located in Isimba village on the Victoria Nile – in Kayunga District – and the project to build the power station started back in April 2015, ending on 31 March 2019 with the dam now built and the generating equipment installed.
The dam was built by Chinese company, China International Water & Electric Corporation (CWE). The other parties involved were Artelia and KKATT, who were the key project consultants. The Uganda Electricity Generation Company (UETCL) was appointed as the Project Implementing Agency for the Isimba hydro power plant.
President Yoweri Museveni commissioned the Isimba hydro power station, which is expected to add up to 183 MW of electricity to the National Grid, while bringing Uganda’s total installed Power Capacity from the current 955MW to 1158MW.
https://techjaja.com/wp-content/litespeed/localres/aHR0cHM6Ly9wbGF0Zm9ybS50d2l0dGVyLmNvbS93aWRnZXRzLmpzPresident @KagutaMuseveni has officially commissioned Isimba dam. #IsimbaCommissioning pic.twitter.com/rfcEKFM5L3
— Uganda Media Centre (@UgandaMediaCent) March 21, 2019
If you sum up the generation from Isimba (I83MW) and that expected from Karuma (600MW) which is expected to be commissioned at the end of this year, the two will add a combined 783MW to the National grid, in line with Uganda’s target of attaining 17,000MW Power Capacity of electricity by 2028.
Cost of the Isimba Hydro Power plant
The dam cost $568m, which was partly financed (85%) by a loan from China’s Exim bank to be repaid over 10years, and the other part was financed by the Government of Uganda (15%) from the government’s Energy Fund.
Isimba Coverage
The power station extends over approximately 2,867.6 acres of land and comprises of a concrete gravity dam, a clay-core rock fill dam, a spillway, a power house, electro-mechanical equipment, switching stations, and auxiliary power transmission works.
Government has paid UGX 44 billion in compensation to the residents of Isimba, but there’s an additional, but contested, UGX 405 billion claim by residents and investors.
How it will work
The new Isimba substation will be a double busbar type with two line bays, four transformer bays, one bus coupler, and two future bays.
The generated power will be transmitted to the substation at Bujagali Hydro Power Plant through a 132kV Isimba-Bujagali double circuit transmission line. The 42km-long transmission line will have a 30m wayleave, with a 5m right of way.
Cheapest electricity costs in East Africa
The Isimba power station is expected to reduce the cost of power from the current $8 cents pkwhr, to $5 cents pkwhr making it the cheapest in East Africa, and is as well expected to increase national electricity demand from the current 22%.
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Additional works
In addition to the completed construction of the dam and the double circuit transmission line, the project also included the construction of a 33kV power line from Kayunga town to the project site, along Busana Road. This is in addition to the construction of a road across river Nile, to connect Kayunga and Kamuli districts.
