By Juma Nsubuga
The minister of energy and mineral development Dr Ruth Nankabirwa says the 600MW Karuma hydro power dam will be commissioned next year.
The minister gave this assurance during an interview The Inspector at the ministry of energy headquarters in Kampala.
She says that the dam could have been commissioned earlier but due to some technical challenges it will have to delay until next year.
“We are not going to rush the plant for political commissioning, we have to take technical commissioning unit by unit” she said” adding that government will not commission the 600MW plant at ago.
“You have to test first the stallion of the grid to avoid ending up blowing up everything. We will first commission one unit which is 100MW thereafter, others will come on board” she said.
Nankabirwa said the dry testing began in April and was completed in September adding that all equipments were tested.
“Covid-19 affected all the projects in Uganda because the station staffs were demobilized. That’s why we should not rush for the political commissioning” she added
Nankabirwa stressed that Uganda government’s Vision is to ensure that it gives services to the communities at all times at affordable services.
“We want to see a very vibrant Electricity Supply Industry since electricity is the driver of our economy” she said
The 600MW Karuma hydro power plant is located on the River Nile in Kiryandongo district in mid-Northern Uganda, 270km from the capital city Kampala.
