Umeme executes USD83.3million investment plan on schedule

December 22, 2020 in Business, Companies, Energy by Editor

Electric power distributor Umeme spent USD83.3 million during 2020 funding capacity upgrades to stabilize the network amidst rapidly expanding demand.

Part of a USD450m investment plan for the 2019- 2025 period, this year’s expenditure saw the conversion of 160,000 customers from post-paid to prepaid metering, leaving only 30,000 customers on the old billing system.

Other projects undertaken during the year include the Siti – Tororo line, a switching station in the Mbale industrial park and upgrade of the Mbale substation.

Umeme also upgraded substations in Gulu, Ntinda, and built a new station in Nakawa, to address demand from new housing and industrial development along the Nakawa-Bugolobi corridor.

Lines to link the Mukono North substation to consumers were also completed while a new 40km line linking Mbalala substation to the new National Water and Sewerage production facility in Katosi is now live.

Supply to Tian Tang and Kampala Cement factories, among other industrial developments in the Mbalala area was also augmented.

“We started the year on a high note but were affected with the COVID19 pandemic which slowed down all our operations,” Umeme chief executive Selestino Babungi told an end of year media briefing adding that the investments were evidence of  “Our commitment to Uganda and the people of Uganda.”

Other projects include network refurbishment in Njeru Municipality, Jinja district powering MMP industrial Park, as well as investment in injecting new transformers in the network across the country. “We added over 100 new transformers to 100 zones across the country,” Babungi said.