Africa-Press – Uganda. The government through the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) is set to review the structure of power tariffs for the electricity generated and supplied by Kalangala Infrastructural Services (KIS) on Buggala Island in Kalangala District.
This comes at a time when the government is in the final process of connecting Kalangala to the national power grid.
This will happen after laying a 6km submarine power cable on the bed of Lake Victoria from Bukakkata on the mainland to Bugoma on Kalangala Island.
Currently, the government is constructing the two switching stations –one in Bukakkata and another in Bugoma .
According to Mr Andrew Kilama Lajul, the managing director of KIS, new tariffs are currently being discussed and will be announced before the end of the year.
“The coming of the submarine power cable will pave way for a new arrangement in production of power, that is why we are currently in discussion with our regulator and government to see how the new tariffs regime shall look like, “ he said in an interview on Tuesday.
Unlike power consumers on the mainland, those on Buggala Island have over the years been paying different tariffs, which islanders say are exorbitantly high.
According to Ms Lisbet Komujuni, the senior Legal officer from ERA, power thefts affect the cost per unit of power.
“Every resident should be conscious of power thefts in their area because the effect of it is felt in the prices they pay in the electricity they consume,” she said.
This quarter ending in December domestic customers in Kalangala are charged Shs1,213.2 per kWh and commercial customers are charged Shs1,608.6 per kWh.
“We use fuel, which is expensive, to generate power during the night hours from 7pm to 7am but all this power is not consumed. So, when power is generated and is not all consumed, it ends up destroying our machines thus incurring commercial losses,” Mr Joseph Mulindwa, the KIS spokesperson, explained. Annually, KIS reportedly spends over Shs5 billion in the production of electricity on Buggala, which officials say, with the lower number of consumers, they have been unable to record any profits.
Mr Rajab Semakula, the district chairperson, revealed that at least five investors have left the district due to unstable power supply.
“For example, we had a maize mill on Bombo Road in Kalangala Town Council, a rice mill in Mweena , and the government ice plant in Mweena –all these failed to operate due to unreliable power supply,” he said.
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