Small dams operate below capacity as rivers run dry

PIC: The water outlet of one of the two turbines at Nyagak hydropower plant in Zombo district that has been shut down. (Credit: Pascal Kwesiga)

Many parts of Uganda are experiencing an unusually long dry spell. The six-month dry spell followed months of minor dry weather conditions in some areas that did not receive substantial rains last March and May. In Uganda, a long dry spell that had not been experienced in many years until last year, has had a devastating impact on various sectors of the economy and people's livelihoods. The dry spell is party blamed on the changing global climate conditions and massive environmental degradation. In today's part of our series on the impact of the dry spell and environmental degradation in Uganda, Pascal Kwesiga looks at their effects on lakes.

It is 7:00pm in Arua town on a Sunday. Patrick Okello, 27, sits outside his photo studio on Hospital Street listening to music through earphones.

It is dark inside his studio, which doubles as a video library, and the studio equipment can barely be seen from outside. There is a power blackout in this part of north western Uganda.

And it is not only Arua that is experiencing a power blackout, but all the five districts in West Nile region, except Adjumani, which was recently connected to the national grid from Gulu district.

"My business depends on power, I cannot work without power," Okello said.  

Only a few bars have turned on power generators in the town. Owners of small businesses, especially general merchandise shops, have closed their shops and gone home.

Agnes Ayikoru, a manager at Homeland Guest House on Hospital Street, said the intermittent supply is hurting businesses.

"We have resumed using power generators that we used to depend  on before we were connected to hydropower. Power is off most of the time," she said.

The 3.5 megawatts (MW) Nyagak power plant in Zombo district, located over 100km away from Arua, is the only source of hydroelectricity in the six districts in  north western Uganda.

Apart from Adjumani, the other districts in West Nile have never been connected to the national power grid, and have relied on power generators for decades.

Currently, the 3.5MW power plant, which was commissioned in 2012, is operating way below its capacity because the current prolonged dry spell has left Nyagak River with little water for the facility to generate power.

Norbu Tshering, the general manager of West Nile Rural Electrification Company Ltd (WENRECO), a firm that operates the facility, said the plant's generation capacity started falling last November. As a result, the company started load-shedding parts of the region, but the water levels of the river that flows into Uganda from DR Congo continuously receded.

"But even with load-shedding, we realised that power generation was still going down," Tshering said. "We were running only one turbine."

There were hopes that the power generation at the run-of-the river plant would stabilise when rains returned in December, but there were none and the dry spell is still continuing.

 

 

Plant shut down

The $15m (sh53b) power generation facility was built by the Nairobi-based Industrial Promotion Services (IPS), an infrastructure and industrial development arm of Aga Khan Development Network, through the Build, Own and Operate framework.

As a result, WENRECO, a subsidiary of Aga Khan, shut down the plant on December 24 and 25 to achieve the sufficient level of water in the plant to generate power during the two nights.

But the water that built up after 12 hours of shutting down the facility was not enough to generate power for 12 hours of the night.

With effect from December 26, the engineers started turning off the plant daily from 12:00am to 7:00am and between 3:00pm and 6:00pm.

"The river is almost dry and we are managing a crisis,"  Tshering said.

This means that the plant currently generates power for 15 out of the 24 hours in a day. This is affecting local business, the Government tax collections on individuals' monthly power consumption and revenues from power sales by the electricity distributor.

Ugandans pay Value Added Tax worth 18% of the monthly power bill. In addition, the Government also collects sh1,350 monthly from power consumers monthly in service charges. 

There is a metre gauge in the dam that engineers use to establish the level of water elevation in the (dam) for power generation to take place. If the plant is operated below the recommended reservoir operating water level, there is a risk of corrosion in the penstock that conveys water from the dam to the power house.

"The penstock has to always be under water because if the air enters (the penstock), there will be damage to its inner walls,"  Tshering added.

Since power generation began at Nyagak five years ago, the water level in the river that traverses Lendu forest in DR Congo, before entering Uganda, had never receded to the level being witnessed today. This is happening at the time WENRECO had just connected more people to its energy distribution grid.

Consequently, the peak load on the plant had increased from 2.5MW in 2015 to 3.2WM in 2016. Arua is a business hub for traders in Uganda, DR Congo and South Sudan.

The maximum amount of power Nyagak can generate is 3.4MW. Even before water started receding, the electricity supply from the plant was already insufficient to power businesses and light homes in the region.

Effect on economy

Baker Kakonda, the marketing manager for Agu Beverages Limited in Zombo district, said production of bottled water at the factory has fallen from 500 to about 100 cartons. There are 24 bottles in a carton.

The factory supplies its clients at  a cost of sh9,500 per carton. It can no longer meet the market needs in South Sudan and DR Congo, as well as West Nile.

"We are operating for three, instead of eight hours daily," Kakonda said.

The Okoro Coffee Growers Processing plant in Zombo, which had been closed in 2006 partly due to high operational costs arising from the use of power generators, was revamped after Nyagak started generating power. But currently, the lifeline for an estimated 50,000 coffee farmers in the district is operating below capacity due to the intermittent power supply.

 

Nyagak hydropower plant has been closed because of low water levels

The cotton processing plant in Pakwach, Nebbi district is also currently operating below capacity. 

Peter Jurua, an entrepreneur, set up the Savoury Classic Quality Meat Products factory in Nvara Sudan zone in Arua district in 2006, but the sh86m plant has not commenced production due to lack of power.

"I had started operations using a small power generator, but the cost of fuel was astronomical and I stopped. Only one out of four meat processing machines was being powered by the generator," he said, "I had also acquired 18 solar panels, but they could not run the factory.

If the factory with the capacity to produce two tonnes of processed meat products daily had started in 2006, it would have boosted the livestock market in the north and created an extra tax revenue stream for Government.

"My target market is in eastern DR Congo, South Sudan and northern Uganda. I am stuck with the factory because it cannot run without power," Jurua explained.

The Nile Natural Fruit factory, also located in Arua, is also unable to commence operations due to insufficient power supply.

"The President opened the factory in 2013, but it has not actually started. I need constant power supply," Emmanuel Ajedra, the factory owner, said. 

The factory would have boosted the production and market for fruits in the region that already produces a lot of mangoes and oranges.

Dry spell

Many parts of Uganda have experienced a dry spell for the last six months. The prolonged dry spell is being blamed on the changing climate conditions globally and massive environmental degradation.

The Uganda National Meteorology Authority weather forecasts show that Uganda is likely to have rains in March.

Peter Oluoch, the Nyagak power station superintendent, said the company is losing revenue as the dry spell gets severe. The company estimates the loss in energy sales to be between 9% and 30%.

If Uganda continues to experience long dry spells, Nyagak II and III small hydropower stations, which Government plans to build on the same river, may turn out to be white elephants.

Low capacity

Bonny Munihizi, the operations manager for the 13MW Bugoye Hydro power plant II on River Mubuku in Kasese, said there is a marked change in the water level due to the dry spell.

There are two other plants on the same river — the 5MW Mubuku I, which is operated by Tibet Hima mining company in Kilembe mines and the 9.9MW Mubuku III run by Kasese Cobalt Company.

In the previous years, Muhinizi said, they ran two generations units at Mubuku II plant, which is run by Maji Power Ltd, but since December, only one generation unit has been running, producing just 5MW because of reduced water levels.

Muhinizi said the power production from the one generation unit has now fallen to 4MW.

"Generation had never fallen to this level in the last seven years we have been operating the plant," he added.

Julius Wandera, the consumer and public affairs manager at the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), said all the seven small hydropower plants are currently operating below 50% of their installed capacity.

The other small hydropower plants include the 6.4MW Ishasha in Kanungu, 18MW Mpanga in Kamwenge and 9MW Kabalega in Hoima.

The plants, Wandera said, operate at 80% of their installed capacities and above sometimes during the rainy seasons.

The Government has invited investors to build and operate other small dams on Nkuse and Muziizi rivers in Hoima and Kibaale districts respectively.

The Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited is currently developing another small hydropower plant at Maziba in Kabale district.

"If established, the new small plants will be able to operate because design takes into consideration the flow patterns of the rivers. But they will operate minimally," Wandera said.

However, a feasibility study undertaken by IPS to establish the viability of building a plant on Nyagak River did not indicate that the water level would recede to the current level at any given time.

Ivan Kisembo, a principle projects engineer at ERA, said power generation is being affected by global warming and the environmental degradation that have altered the weather patterns.

He explained that small plants have low storage capacities to minimise environmental footprint and costs, and use only the water available in the river to generate power.

 

 

The Government, Kisembo said, has to stop encroachment on rivers and degradation of forests to ensure the continued generation of hydropower while diversifying the country's energy mix.  An investor recently set up a $19m (sh68b) 10MW solar plant in Soroti district.

Other investors plan to establish a $18m (sh64b) 10MW solar power generation facility in Tororo district by June and another $17m (sh61b) 10MW in Mayuge district before end of the year.

According to Vision 2040, a blue-print outlining the priorities that should be pursued for Uganda to achieve lower middle-income status by 2020 and an upper-middle income status by 2040, without factoring in climate change, the country's hydropower potential is 4500MW. But the impact of the current dry spell on hydroelectricity generation clearly shows that the estimated hydropower potential may not be realised.

It is estimated that Uganda will need 41,738 MW by 2040 to increase power access to 80% from the current 20%. Currently, Uganda generates over 800MW.

A substantial amount of electricity will also be needed to power the $2.3b (sh8.2trillion) electric Standard Gauge Railway that the Government plans to start building this year between Malaba, on the Kenya-Uganda border, and Kampala. More power will be needed to power the over 20 industrial parks the Government intends to establish in the next four years as part of Vision 2040 development agenda.

The Government plans to develop new power resources in the energy mix during the Vision 2040 period to address the power deficit. See graphic above potential of new energy resources.

Environment destruction

Virtually, all wetlands and forests have been encroached on, with some converted into farmland. Encroachers have cut down and settled in some of the country's 506 central forest reserves. See graphic for rate of deforestation.

Florence Adongo, the head of the directorate of water resource management in the Ministry of Water and Environment, said the massive deforestation and degradation of wetlands has interfered with the country's water cycle.

As a result, the country has lost its water retention systems. Adongo said the wetlands and forests store water (rains) and use it to recharge underground water sources, as well as channelling some of it into lakes and rivers, especially during the dry seasons.

"When rains come nowadays, the water runs quickly into lakes and rivers because there are no wetlands and forests to store it," she added.

This, Adongo said, implies the water circulation in the country has been affected.

The degradation of forests and wetlands, Adongo explained, also that the rate of evaporation has increased, and that a lot of water is getting lost into the atmosphere.

"Temperatures have increased. The problem is, we no longer have enough forests and wetlands to condense the water that goes into the atmosphere and bring it down as rain," she stated.

Charcoal trade banned

Zombo district has also passed a resolution barring trade in charcoal and licences that had been issued previously to people engaged in producing (charcoal) and selling it outside the local government have been withdrawn.

Annett Orombi, the district forestry officer, said charcoal burning is one of the main drivers of degradation, but various tree species have been supplied freely to the people with support from the National Forestry Authority to mitigate the impact of the environmental degradation.

Orombi explained that several wetlands have been encroached on by cultivators and people involved in making bricks.

Interventions

The permanent secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Dr Stephen Isabalija, said one of the possible interventions being explored is to upgrade some small hydropower plants into hybrid electricity generation facilities.

"We intend to install solar system at the plant to make it a hybrid facility so it can generate hydroelectricity when water levels are high and solar power during the dry seasons," he said. But it is not clear when the plan would come to fruition because its nitty-gritty has not been worked out.

The Government is also counting on the 600MW dam under construction on the Nile River crossing at Karuma to connect West Nile to the national power grid. The World Bank recently approved a $100m (sh359b) loan for Uganda to build a power transmission line to West Nile.

However, the construction of $1.7b (sh6.1 trillion) Karuma dam and transmission line will need to be finished at the same time next year for West Nile to get reliable power.

Uganda has been split into four water management zones — Albertine, Victoria, Upper Albert Nile and Kyoga to easily monitor human activities on water bodies. The National Environment Management Authority is currently carrying out small-scale evictions of encroachers in wetlands across the country. 

2016 hottest year

The US government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and an independent National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), reported that the seven months of last year (January-July) were globally the hottest period on record.

In a statement issued last November, the World Meteorological Organisation said 2016 has been the hottest year on record.