Eskom Uganda Limited, the company running Jinja’s Nalubaale Hydro Power Dam (180MW) and Kiira Hydro Power Dam (200MW), has confirmed that it has totally shut down the Nalubaale Dam to pave way for a risk assessment and cleaning operation following impact by the two floating islands that clogged the power dam late last week and yesterday, April 20th, 2020.
This is as Eskom ramps up cleaning operations and full restoration of Kiira Dam which too was affected by the floating islands.
“The floating Island has had an impact on our production capacity as Nalubaale units are not available having been shut down. The reason being the chocking of screens and the impact the debris has on the water cooling system. We took a decision that we need to first remove the debris at the intake, clean the screens at the plant, and send divers to inspect the amount of silt underwater so as to clean it before we can start up the machines. This is ongoing though will be very effective when the harvest (of the two islands) is completed,” Ms Thozama Gangi, the Eskom Managing Director told CEO East Africa Magazine in an email.
“Our focus, for now, is to have all the units at Kiira cleaned and to be operational while excavation is still ongoing at Nalubaale and thereafter we focus our attention and resources to Nalubaale Units to bring it back to operations,” she added.
Asked when she expects the two power plants to be back into full operation, Ms. Thozama said: “We would like to be in normal operations by end of this week or sooner if all goes well according to the plans. However this depends on the clearing of the debris, cleaning of the screens and the level of de-silting of the intake,” she said.
She, however said that it is still too “early to tell whether there has been any damage caused to the plant until all the actions as highlighted above are completed and plant checks and inspection done and we have observed the machines running. Then we can determine the impact the incident has had on the machines,” she said.
Yesterday we reported that due to the shutting down of Nalubaale, Umeme, the power distributor, was getting 100MW less power from the UETCL, the transmission company and as a result, a two weeks load shedding schedule was in the works, pending approvals from the regulator. High on the agenda is a load shedding schedule that will not compromise Uganda’s ongoing fight against the Covid-19 disease as well as keeping critical sectors and institutions switched on.
However, Bujagali Hydroelectric Power Station (250 MW) and Isimba Hydroelectric Power Station (183 MW) are said to be operating at normal capacity.
In the meantime, teams from Uganda National Roads Authority, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Works, National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA) and Eskom continued efforts to remove the second island from Nalubaale as well as the larger third island that was on Sunday docked at Jinja pier.
It is from this larger chunk that the small piece that clogged the dams, yesterday, broke.
Ministry of Agriculture has provided 3 long-arm excavators, 2 barges, 1 Ferry, 1 Hydraulic crane, 3 Self-loading trucks (20 ton), 4 Dump trucks (20 ton) and one bulldozer for this operation.
Although Uganda generates more power than it needs- 1,252MW versus a peak demand of 723.76 MW as of 31st December 2019, leaving a surplus of roughly 529 MW of surplus power supply- most of this surplus cannot be relied on during this critical time because of limited transmission capacity. As a result, most of the power from the new dams cannot get to where it is needed, thus making the Nalubaale/Kiira dams a critical source of power.
For example, it was reported in the Daily Monitor, a local independent daily that government of Uganda since October 2019, has been paying the developer of the 42 MW Achwa II hydropower facility- Achwa River Energy Project (ARPE), up to UGX13 million per hour for power that the plant generates, but is not used because UETCL can’t evacuate the power yet due to delays in construction of a transmission line. The 42 MW Achwa II hydropower facility is located along Achwa River, a tributary of River Nile, in Angagura Sub-county, Pader District, in northern Uganda.
According to UETCL, up to 15 transmission line projects are being delayed by compensations of up to 42,000 project affected persons (PAPs). According to UETCL’s Edward Muteesa, the Principal Projects Officer 80 per cent of delays in energy projects, are due to delays and disagreements in compensation to project affected persons.