Mini Hydropower & Rural Electrification Project (Development Phase)

Uganda has an overall lack of energy: fossil fuels have to come from far by tanker truck using bad roads. In rural areas like the project area is less than 6% of the population connected to the electrical grid. Some 94% of the people have only biomass and kerosene as a fuel for their economic and domestic activities. The absence of reliable electric power supply hinders economic development keeps the population poor and hinders health improvements and education. The project concerns the development & construction and operation of 10 scattered (stand-alone) mini-hydropower plants. A distribution network and technical assistance for a period of 3 years. This results in 10 mini-grids connecting 140180 people with electricity. Part of these mini-grids will be connected to the main grid (which suffers from under capacity) to fully utilize the idle capacity during off-peak hours due to which another 206820 people could supposedly be served. For each of the sites the project provides for the construction of the dam. The power plant the connecting line distribution systems and (home) connections necessary training and for carrying out maintenance on the installations. Together the cluster of power plants has a capacity of 6200 kilowatts a 10 kV high-voltage electricity transport and a 415V low-voltage-distribution network. The project will generate reliable electric power by means of mini hydropower plants and transmit it to the people. This would provide a total of 347000 people (67000 households) with electricity and take away the before mentioned limitations. The project aims at saving time that is currently used for collecting firewood reducing sickness and deaths due to indoor air pollution caused by indoor cooking reducing CO2 emissions and boosting entrepreneurship and economic growth due to increased production and marketing of local products the introduction of cold storage and food processing and improvement of health and education conditions.