Coping with load shedding

By Justin Emedot, :: 29-11-2011

It is 11pm and Vincent  Kabale, a fouth-year law student, is just returning to his hostel. Loaded with a bag containing his reading material and laptop, he slowly gets into his dark room, and some noise can be heard as he shifts things.
He has just got back from doing his reading on campus after  he was interrupted midway his reading by the sudden blackout. Many of Vincent’s neighbours too can be heard getting into their rooms after 10pm, stumbling over chairs at intervals.
Call this the loadshedding effect. Umeme in recent months introduced a 24-hour power load-shedding schedule country-wide after power generating companies switched off their generators citing in part non-payment of their arrears by the government.
This has led to power shortages leaving homes and businesses in various parts of the country without electricity for days on end.
Agnes, who runs a secretarial bureau inside the university, says her business is usually affected a lot during the blackouts.
“I have to hire a generator to continue operating my computers and photocopiers, and if I cannot, then I sit and hope for power to come back,” she says.
And for students who use electric kettles to make themselves breakfast at their hostels before going for lectures, their routine has been greatly affected.
“I love taking porridge in the morning, but getting hot water is a challenge since you cannot know when you will have power to use the kettle,” Vincent says.
He at times has to move from his hostel in lower Kauga to Bugujju, just to have breakfast. He adds that ironing has become a nightmare, and irons once a week. But that too has become hard since electricity goes off for days.
UCU has a standby generator that is supposed to run when electricity is off.
According to information from the electrical section, the generator serves the entire university, except for the staff quarters, and uses 45-50 litres of diesel per hour. A litre now goes for about Shs 3,500.
For the past few days however, they connected the staff quarters to test the capacity of the generator, just in case they were to supply them with power.
Staff houses are not connected to the generator. So when there are power cuts, its is difficult for them to carryout accademic personal work. Neither can they accomplish personal chores at home easily.
But some places are of high priority. They operate on various power sources.
“We recently had to repair our inverters that had now become faulty,” explains Rachael Nakamya Lule, the administrative assistant for the Allan Galpin Clinic.
They always use inverters as an alternative source, but has to be switched to the generator when the inverters developed a problem at one point. The clinicians had to work with torches in the night when the generator was off. They also had to refer many people out at night.
But their drugs that need to be kept under refrigeration are always safe. They do have ice that keeps them refrigerated for up to eight hours, and usually by that time, the generator is on.
Recently, energy state minister Simon D’ujanga told journalists at the Uganda Media Centre that the load-shedding was expected to decrease after commissioning of the Bujagali Dam in December.
Although the dam will produce 250 megawatts, Eng D’ujanga, however, said the rate of energy demand is increasing at fast rate so it will not mean the end of load-shedding.
To meet this anticipated demand however, Karuma and other small plants have to supplement the two national stations.
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