Museveni is adamant about supplying electricity straight from dams to large industrial consumers.
President Yoweri Museveni has stated that he will work with the Speaker of Parliament to expedite the revision of the law to ensure that energy is delivered straight from the generator to the industrial user, thereby boosting economic growth.
“Power should be delivered directly from the generator to the end user, particularly the industrial end user.” The law should be changed. “I’ll speak with the speaker,” Museveni stated.
The president met with Chinese investors from the Mbale Industrial Park on Wednesday, who expressed their dissatisfaction with their exclusion from direct electricity usage despite having a larger industrial park than the MMP Industrial Park in Buikwe district.
MMP Industrial Park and Kapeeka Industrial Park are participating in a direct power consumption pilot program while the law is being amended to allow all industrial parks to obtain direct power at a reasonable cost.
Zhang Zhichum, CEO of Tian Tang Group, Wang Wentong, General Manager of Tian Tang Group, Li Wenchao, Deputy General Manager of Mbale Industrial Park, Ming Qian Sun, an investor, and Yang Li, an investor, all attended the meeting.
Ming Qian Sun of Zhurong Hydropower Consumption Park, a power investor, also presented a proposal for a Power Purchase Agreement guaranteeing 300MW of power supply at a rate of US$3.5cents and 15 acres of land near the Karuma Hydro Powerplant during the conference.
Zhurong Hydropower is interested in purchasing significant amounts of electricity in bulk, and could be the largest buyer.
“Once we achieve full capacity, our power expenses will account for 2% of total government spending.” There is no other offtaker in Uganda with a voltage higher than 33kV, thus we link straight to Karuma Substation at 142kV.
We will construct our own substation, which will be transferred to UETCL’s ownership, decreasing the amount of upfront funding required from the public sector to complete the project,” Ming Qian Sun said.
Ming Qian Sun stated that they are also interested in investing in a Crypto-currency industrial park, with an initial investment of US$15 million in the first year and a second year investment of US$20 million.
The meeting was attended by Evelyne Anite, Minister of State for Finance in charge of Privatization, Peter Lokeris, Minister of State for Mineral Development, and Sidronius Okaasai Opolot, Minister of State for Energy.
