Finding Potential Sites for Small-Scale Hydro Power in Uganda: a ...

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component to all of these issues, generating numerous and collaborating impacts ondevelopment.However Holland et al. (2001), argues that the benefits of electricity, compared to otherforms of energy, are its usefulness and convenience. Electricity can stimulatedevelopment that is already taking place, but it will not initiate development.“Communities, which are very poor, with very little economic activity, are unlikely toderive much economic benefit from an electricity supply, although they may derivesubstantial social benefits from better lighting and communication”. In addition Ramani(1993) discusses that there is no direct correlation between rural electrification andeconomic growth leading to rural development, though admits its role in promotion ofeconomic growth. Rural electrification can result in greater impacts on productivity incombination with other factors and conditions regarding availability or creation ofnecessary infrastructure facilities.3.3.4 Uganda’s Rural Electrification Strategy and PlanIn order to investigate and learn more about what actions the Government of Ugandatakes to contribute to an increased development through rural electrification, weinterviewed a newly founded institution in Uganda, called the Rural ElectrificationAgency (REA). This chapter is the result of that interview.3.3.4.1 BackgroundUganda’s Electricity Act, 1999, provides that the minister responsible for electricity shallprepare a sustainable and coordinated Rural Electrification Strategy and Plan for Uganda.The Strategy and Plan are designed to overcome the main barriers of rural electrificationby the establishment of an appropriate framework composed of a Rural ElectrificationAgency, a Rural Electrification Board, a Rural Electrification Fund allowing provision ofgrants and subsidies on investment costs and a Rural Electrification Master Plan toprovide information on investments opportunities. The Rural electrification Strategyforms an integrated part of the government’s wider rural transformation and povertyeradication agenda. Sustainable rural development with increase in rural incomes andquality of life hinges critically upon enabling small and medium rural enterprises asengines of economic growth and provision of basic social services to meet communityneeds such as health, education, water, telecommunication services and lighting.28
The government owned electricity distributor, Uganda Electricity Board (UEB), has170,000 costumers, of which 80,000 lives outside the urban Kampala-Jinja-Entebbetriangle. UEB has been adding new grid connections at a rate of roughly 8,500 a yearmainly in urban and peri-urban areas, whilst the number of Ugandan households isgrowing at a rate of 100,000 every year, more than half of which are in rural areas. Thisillustrates the scale of Uganda’s electrification needs and the limited scale of the progressmade to date. According to REA, the requirement for a fundamental change of policyand approach will be provided by the Electricity Act of 1999.3.3.4.2 ObjectivesThe primary objective of the Rural Electrification Strategy is to reduce inequalities inaccess to electricity and the associated opportunities for increased social welfare,education, health and income generating opportunities. The target is to reach a ruralelectrification rate of 10%, which means that 400,000 rural households are to be servicedby the year 2010, by promoting expansion of the grid and development of off-gridelectrification and stimulate innovations within suppliers. The promotion of renewableenergy is another important element of the governments Rural Electrification Strategy.At present, a part from the large hydropower plants, only a tiny fraction of Uganda’srenewable energy potential, consisting of biomass, small-scale hydropower, solar, windand geothermal resources, is being exploited, largely for self-generation by sugar andcoffee producers. Renewable energy can provide a cost-effective method ofelectrification, especially in the many rural areas that are remote from the grid. In thepast, key policy and other barriers have held back the potential of these indigenous andenvironmentally friendly energy resources. The new Rural Electrification Strategy aims tofacilitate the rapid rise in the use of renewable energy by removing or reducing existingbarriers, such as weak capacity for project sponsoring, technical capacity, high up frontinvestment costs resulting in long payback periods and an overall weak financial sector,to mention some.3.3.4.3 The New ApproachThe fundamental elements of the new policy and approach are that it progressively willbe demand-driven and based on decentralized private initiatives, whereby privatecompanies, NGOs, local authorities and communities will establish and manage theirown electricity supply arrangements. For areas that are not attractive to the private sectorgovernment will promote public private partnership to electrify them in a realistic time.29
Page 1: Seminar series nr 121Finding Potent
Page 5: AbstractOver 2 billion people, most
Page 9: AcknowledgmentsFirst of all, we wou
Page 12 and 13: 5 Result ..........................
Page 14 and 15: For the specific case of Uganda, a
Page 17 and 18: 2 Study AreaThe main reason for us
Page 19 and 20: In the 1960’s Uganda was one of t
Page 21 and 22: 2.1.3 TopographyMost of Uganda is s
Page 23: Figure 2.4 The highest volcano in K
Page 26 and 27: e able to manually write the data,
Page 28 and 29: Depending on the appearance of the
Page 30 and 31: o Then the water flows from the for
Page 32 and 33: and generator is 65% and 80% effici
Page 34 and 35: Table 3.2 Capacity and production o
Page 36 and 37: Table 3.5 Small-scale hydropower ca
Page 38 and 39: technology was supplied to an area
Page 42 and 43: The Rural Electrification project t
Page 44 and 45: The closer the interviewer is to th
Page 46 and 47: Over this area we bought the follow
Page 48 and 49: The primary erosive force determini
Page 50 and 51: There are a set of tolerances used
Page 52 and 53: ivers are seasonal, since the hydro
Page 54 and 55: (a) (b) (c)Figure 4.8 An example sh
Page 56 and 57: 4.2.6 Post Processing of Output Dat
Page 58 and 59: A = ( b ⋅ h)2(4.3)Where A equals
Page 60 and 61: elinquish because of too expensive
Page 62 and 63: The first step when performing the
Page 64 and 65: more obvious in their geographic co
Page 66 and 67: By using a smaller area it is possi
Page 68 and 69: 5.3 Summary of Resultso The general
Page 70 and 71: projects are supposed to be finance
Page 72 and 73: Sinks are a reoccurring problem whe
Page 74 and 75: UTM Zone 36N projection. The study
Page 76 and 77: As described in chapter 3.3.3 all r
Page 78 and 79: and if good financing possibilities
Page 80 and 81: Hutchinson M. F., Dowling T. I., 19
Page 83 and 84: 9 Appendix9.1 Interview: Rural Elec
Page 85 and 86: 9.3 Digital DataAll data layers are
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