Uganda has asked Kenya to buy more Ugandan electricity. Plans by two international companies to build separate hydro power stations on the River Nile in Uganda stalled because project financiers had asked for proof of potential power markets.
Uganda is seeking to safeguard the future of its proposed plants. AES Nile Power, whose parent company is the US AES Corporation, and Egyptian company Arabian International Construction are behind the proposed developments. The stations have a combined cap-acity of 750MW, way above Uganda’s peak demand of around 260MW. Uganda’s only domestic electricity source at the moment is the Owen Falls dam. It has a maximum generation capacity of 180MW and power outages are common in the capital Kampala.
Kenya has a peak supply deficit of 100MW, according to the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, but only imports a small amount of power from Uganda, outside peak hours.