Inside awaited Karuma power dam launch set for September 2023

The 600MW project will be the largest power project in Uganda when it is fully commissioned, 10 years after construction started. It already has two units, one and four, each with 100MW connected to the national grid. Unit three has also been tested and is in the works to be synchronised to the national grid soon.

Overall, there are six units at Karuma, each with an installed capacity of 100MW.

Challenges

Badru Kiggundu, the chairman of the Project Steering Committee for Karuma and Isimba Hydro Power projects, inspected works at the site where he acknowledged the progress being undertaken.

"Karuma hydropower project has missed at least three deadlines for the start of commercial operations, and we have been told that pressure had begun mounting on Sinohydro, the Chinese company undertaking works, over the delays," a source said.

The project has been plagued by challenges of shoddy works where the contractor, Sinohydro, has been accused of violating the agreed bills of quantities.

The government hopes that the Karuma project will lower electricity tariffs in the economy. It is expected that Karuma will charge five US cents (Shs3) per unit.

Future projects

However, the challenges that the country has faced in getting Karuma online have forced the government to consider changing its strategy on such large power projects.

The delays over the commissioning of Karuma, and earlier the 183MW Isimba Hydropower project, have offered the government enough proof that there's a need to review the build-and-transfer model that was used for these two flagship projects.

Karuma is expected to be the last such project the government will use the build-and-transfer model.

This experience has allegedly convinced the government to seek alternative sources of funding for its power projects in order to have some control over the quality of work.