Benon Mutambi, CEO of Uganda Electricity Regulatory Authority

According to ERA acting CEO Benon Mutambi, these committees have been formed in accordance with the authority’s mandate to receive and investigate complaints in addition to giving various stakeholders in electricity industry an opportunity to participate in ERA activities.

He told a media briefing in Kampala that these committees will go a long way in enabling consumers bringing their complaints to ERA for action.

Mutambi cited examples such as transformers which burst in some places but take a month to be repaired because ERA lacks a mechanism through which consumers would alert it, adding that the formation of such committees would also increase on its publicity among the public to know its role and mandate.

Ultimate Media

The post ERA to form Electricity Consumer Committees first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

According to ERA acting chief executive officer Benon Mutambi, this development was reached  after discovering that load shedding during day time affects the economy harshly than it does at night when majority people are sleeping.

Electric power connection

Mutambi attributed the crisis in the power sector to increase in fuel prices and the weakening Ugandan shilling against a dollar.

According to Mutambi, all contracts signed with thermo power generators are denominated in dollars for fear by investors to lose their money arising from the depreciating shilling.

Addressing a press conference in Kampala, Mutambi says since 2009, the shilling has depreciated by over 600 shillings from 1874 shillings to one US dollar, leading to an increase in the sector revenue requirement which he says has increased by 192 billion shillings in the past 18 months.

He said that despite those challenges, the power tariffs have not been adjusted upwards to absorb the effects of the falling shilling and high fuel costs.

Mutambi said that while in 2006 the sector required only 420 billion shillings, it shot up to 618 billion shillings in last year whereas this year (2011) it has soured to at 1.076 trillion shillings.

By Isaac Senabulya

The post Day time load shedding to end-Uganda Electricity Regulatory Authority first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

Electric power connection

According to a press statement by the Management of ERA, these Networks are deemed illegal because the owners have never applied to ERA for a licence to operate these networks which violates section 57of the Electricity Act.

The Management of ERA says though they are aware that there could be such networks in other parts of the country so far they have only identified one Kyegegwa Town.

It says the Ugandans should also avoid such networks because they could be unsafe due to the unprofessional constructions of their electricity networks and because the people connected to such networks are always charged tariffs which are not based on legally approved methodology of determining power tariffs.

ERA says all such persons who are currently operating illegal networks in any part of the country should immediately contact ERA to be guided on how to formalize and regularize their operations since it is what the law requires them to do.

By Tiberindwa Zakaria, Ultimate Media

The post Uganda Electricity Regulatory Authority warns against illegal supply of Electricity first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.