BY Ezaruku Draku Franklin

Until 2019, residents of Kasenyi landing site in Kasese district were either using candles or Kerosene lamps for lighting. Those that could afford were using small solar panels to light their houses and charge phone. The place located on the shores of Lake George had no access to the national grip and there was even no immediate plan by ministry of energy and mineral development to connect the place to the main grid.

However, while the ministry did not plan to connect the place to the main grid, the World Wide Fund for Nature Uganda office under the Scaling-Up Rural Electrification Using Innovative Solar Photo Voltaic Distribution Models project with the funding from the European Union and other partners embarked on a project to connect the place and six others to the mini grid using solar energy.

For the residents, the connection came as a relief, raising hope for them that they could finally make decent living and engage in economic activities using the 39 kilowatts electricity provided by solar panels.

James Kahungu, a resident at the landing site owns a bar. Kahungu says for years, he has been incurring heavy costs, running his bar business on generator. He however said when the officials from WWF and Sage Wood limited, the company that constructed the mini grid switched on the power few months ago, they gave each resident connected eight units of power as bonuses.

“With that eight units, I made more Shs800,000 and I am the happiest. The coming of this solar power has saved us a lot because now we can put away our generators that used to make a lot of noise, destroy the environment and all the costs that come with it. I thank the WWF and European Union for installing this power here. This will change our lives and we shall be able to make more money,” he proudly said.

Kahungu is not alone trying to transform his live using the clean solar energy. Several other residents in the area have embraced the power, through the free connection policy under the rural electrification agency. While WWF put the solar panels and the mini grip, the Rural Electrification Agency took the connection to homes at no costs.

Gerald Masereka, a businessman at the landing site who owns an electric and electronics shop says the commissioning of the mini gridline opens a new chapter for them. He said he has operated the shop for more than five years, but when power was finally connected, he started receiving more customers.

“You see here I deal in power cables and many other electronic products. Since the construction of this mini grid started, people have been coming here to buy cables and other electronic products and business is doing well for me. Right now I can sell more than 500 metres of power cables daily and it’s really good,” he said.

Masereka said before the construction, many people were idle and used to engage in subversive activities like poaching and over fishing, but now many are opening up shops and diversifying.

“You see now around here most of these shops are new because people now have access to power. Even me here I used to use y small solar panel which did not have enough power, but now you can see I have been connected to the bigger solar power,” he said.

Kirungi Robert, the manager of Global Petrol Station at the landing site said before the connection, they used to pump manually which was tedious but now the situation has changed.

“This mini grid has come as a relief. We were two here working and each day we would pump the fuel manually which was very difficult, but now using the power, the system is very fast and we don’t waste a lot of time,” he said.

“We never thought we would have access to electricity here, but now these people of WWF have saved us and we are greatul to them. You can see all the houses here are connected to electricity and this one has saved us a lot,” he added.

The ministry of energy and mineral development over weekend commissioned a number of mini solar grids in Kasese and Rubirizi district, bringing access to the rural fishing communities that would not be connected to the national grid.

The project implemented by the World Wide Fund for Nature with funding from the European Union and a number of other partners hopes to transform the fishing communities into productive units and help provide alternative livelihoods, and protect the natural resources with Queen Elizabeth National Park.

In Kasese district, a 39 kilowatts mini grid was commissioned at Kasenyi Landing Site on the shores of Lake George, while a similar mini grids were also switched on at Kisenyi and other parts in Rubirizi district.

For the local communities, it is a dream come true because they thought they would never have access to power in the next 20 or 30 years, because of the nature of their locations. The communities are off the main grid line sand officials from both the energy ministry and WWF said taking power connection to such communities from the national grid would cost a lot of money.

Mr David Duli, the WWF Uganda Country Director while handing over the mini grid to the ministry of energy and mineral development said a total of €4.8 million was spent on constructing the six mini grids in Kasese and Rubirizi districts. He said they focused on the Albertine rift because of its biodiversity and need for energy and such biodiversity to coexist peacefully.

“The Albertine Rift has the highest diversity of ecosystem so energy becomes an important component whose exploitation must coexist with this biodiversity. The focus of this is for the rural communities who are poor, for schools and for health centres in this area,” he said.

As of now, out of 7.3 million households in this country, about 5.3 million do not have access to electricity and Mr Duli attributed this the fact that there are supply gaps.

“Not all these poles and wires can go everywhere. Secondly, the nature of our settlements, here we are in Kasenyi fishing village, settlement is more centred, concentrated, but go outside Kasenyi, settlements are individual households so to supply electricity to all these settlements becomes expesnive,” he said.

He also said the costs associated with provision of electricity are way beyond the poor communities who cannot afford to pay for connections and the other charges.

“Can our people be able to pay for this electricity because it is expensive to generate electricity and distribute it? Four out of ten people in this country live houses with electricity and the rest do not, so we have a huge gap of supplies.

Capacity

Duli said the six solar power mini grids have a total capacity of 179.625 kilowatts of electricity for the communities that otherwise would not have access to the national grid for the next 20 years or so. He said these mini grids will supply power to an estimated 1800 households and 250 businesses.

“The capacity that we have installed here has that potential. As we launch this mini grid, 791 households and 250 businesses have already been connected. So you can see the thirst for having electricity is very big,” he said.

He said under the stand alone solar system, they supplied 4100 home solar system that are now benefitting 1134 households.  

“We did a research do understand what would be the implication if someone used the solar, we found out that if you used this solar, the expenditure on kerosene and other forms of lighting reduced by 81 percent per month and the monthly expenditure on charging phones reduced by 80 percent,” Duli said While commissioning the projects, the state minister for mineral development, Dr Peter Lokeris urged he communities to make good use of the solar power. He said the construction of this mini grid is a testament to government’s commitment to increase the share of renewable energy in the energy mix of our country. 

“Our level of electricity access is 57 percent with the off grid systems mainly solar contributing 38 percent and grid connectivity standing at 19 percent. Our per capita electricity consumption stands at 215 kilowatts per hour, against Africa’s 552kw and the global average of 2975kw/h/capita,” Lokeris said.

He added that “These figures are still low and clear indication of the need for the country to increase the electricity connectivity. There is limited productive use of electricity especially in rural areas which negatively affects the demand growth, affordability and uptake.”

Lokeris said government of Uganda through the ministry of energy is committed to improving generation of electricity distribution and transmission using various initiatives and collaborating with various partners to ensure universal access to affordable and reliable modern energy services while protecting and conserving the environment.

“Renewable energy has the potential to enhance energy security and reliability and mitigate climate change as it has minimal adverse effects on the environment,” the minister said.

He said the ministry is considering mini grids mainly from renewable energy to provide power to rural communities with potential for productive activities.

The European Union programme officer, Jesus Gavilan said as a longtime partner to Uganda’s energy sector, the EU is committed to supporting the country to combat the effects of climate change through sustainable innovative initiatives such as solar power systems and renewable energy clean sources.

He also said the EU will provide substantial grants in the next coming years because it attaches greater importance to electricity generation and transmission for economic development.