AfrElec: Uganda commissions $1.7bn 600-MW Karuma hydropower plant

Uganda has commissioned the 600-MW Karuma Hydropower Station, a nearly $1.7bn plant some 85% financed by China on which construction began in 2013.

A 400-kV transmission line has been launched alongside the long-delayed plant. China’s Exim Bank financed a $1.435bn loan for the project with the remainder of the $1.688bn covered by the Ugandan government’s energy fund.

The Karuma Hydropower Station, owned and operated by the Uganda Electricity Generation Company Ltd (UEGCL), commenced commercial operations on June 12. The station has six vertical Francis turbine-generator units, each with a capacity of 100 MW.

Generating 600 MW at peak, the Karuma station now takes Uganda’s installed capacity to just over 2,000 MW, generated from an energy mix of hydro, solar and thermal, the bulk of which is hydroelectricity.

Uganda, located at the source of the River Nile, generates most of its electricity from hydroelectric power. The country is developing run-of-river dams to help meet its goal of achieving 80% electricity access by 2040, up from about 30% now.

President Yoweri Museveni commissioned the power plant. “To build a modern economy, you need affordable, reliable electricity. High costs of power will keep us behind,” he said, as quoted by The East African, explaining how he disagreed with a Norwegian independent power producer (IPP) in the 1990s that had proposed to build a 200-MW dam, at the highest capacity possible at Karuma Falls.

“I told them that I’ve got somebody who has got a better idea. That’s how I abandoned the Norwegians. When the Chinese came in, I told them why don’t you make a tunnel and create more force using the water, so that you get more energy? The Chinese came in and they did not just say we can do it, but [we] can co-fund it,” Museveni said.

Initially due to be delivered in the contract period of 60 months, the Karuma project faced significant technical challenges within the first two years, including cracks in the spillway concrete works, prompting Sinohydro Corporation to halt construction works for weeks.

In May 2016, the Chinese contractor admitted defects in the laying of concrete works at the station. Karuma would suffer a series of more delays even after the pandemic-related travel bans were lifted in October 2021, The East African writes.

The Karuma station is situated on the Kyoga Nile, upstream of the Nile. The dam site is located upstream of Lake Kyoga and Lake Victoria.

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