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The Rural Electrification Agency is to invite expressions of interest from consultants and contractors to assist with the Decentralised Renewables Development Programme, which aims to develop an off-grid electrification master plan for the islands on Lake Victoria and pilot net-metering using grid-tie solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. The programme, one of the projects under the country’s Scaling-Up Renewable Energy Programme, is being supported by the African Development Bank, which has provided a project preparation grant from the Strategic Climate Fund.

The China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and the Ugandan Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 11 May for cooperation on nuclear energy. The MoU was signed in Beijing by CNNC chairman Wang Shoujun and Ugandan minister of energy and mineral development Irene Muloni. A ministry statement said the parties would give priority to cooperation in applying nuclear technology in medicine, agriculture and industry. The government signed a similar MoU with Russia’s Rosatom in June 2017.

The government signed a project framework agreement with the Albertine Graben Refinery Consortium (AGRC) on 10 April for a 60,000 b/d refinery in Kabaale, Hoima district. The consortium consists of Italian-based GE subsidiary Nuovo Pignone International, Eni subsidiary Saipem and two Mauritius-registered companies, Yaatra Africa and LionWorks Group Ltd.

Uganda is close to signing a formal development agreement for a long-mooted 60,000 b/d refinery in Hoima district. Sources close to the talks told African Energy that an agreeement had been initialled and signing was expected within days. Ugandan officials spent more than three years negotiating with a Russian consortium led by RT Global Resources before talks collapsed in June 2016 and reserve bidder SK Engineering & Construction indicated that it was no longer interested in the project.

Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL) has appointed France’s Artelia in association with KKATT Consult Uganda Limited as the new owner’s engineer for the 183MW Isimba hydropower project. UEGCL has been acting as interim owner’s engineer at Isimba since September 2017, when the contract held by India’s Energy Infratech expired.A rift between UEGCL and the Ministry of Energy resulted in tension between Energy Infratech and the main contractors over Isimba and the 600MW Karuma project, which is being developed at the same time.

France’s Engie has agreed to buy Uganda-based pay-as-you-go solar provider Fenix International. Fenix chief executive Lyndsay Handler told African Energy Fenix would retain its identity but the partnership would offer economies of scale that would significantly reduce the cost of equipment and financing. She said solar home systems (SHS) were a very working capital-intensive business and companies like Fenix and M-Kopa paid high interest rates for their debt. Combining the two companies’ purchasing power for solar equipment would cut costs.

Uganda expects to complete front-end engineering design (Feed) work on the oil export pipeline to Tanzania’s Tanga port in the next couple of weeks and take a final investment decision (FID) by year-end or early next year, ready for an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) tender process next year. Acting permanent secretary at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development Robert Kasande told African Energy that Feed for the upstream projects would take a little longer but the ministry was still aiming for FID by year-end and EPC next year.

SolarNow announced on 18 October that it has agreed a $6m syndicated loan facility arranged by Washington DC-based SunFunder for its special purpose vehicle Safi, which stands for structured asset finance instruments. Safi provides finance for SolarNow’s residential customers, allowing them to purchase pay-as-you-go or lease off-grid solar home systems. SunFunder was also facility agent and a lender, alongside Zurich-based asset manager responsAbility Investments AG and Utrecht-headquartered social investor Oikocredit, each of whom provided $2m.

The governments of Uganda and South Sudan have signed a memorandum of understanding for Uganda to supply power to the South Sudan border towns of Kaya and Nimule.
Speaking at the signing ceremony on 2 October in Kampala, state minister for energy Simon D’ Ujanga, said the agreement was in line with the East African Community’s power pool agreement, which calls on member states to interconnect their electricity networks.

Nigeria’s Oranto Petroleum on 10 October signed two production-sharing agreements (PSAs) for the shallow and deep plays in the Ngassa Block on Lake Albert. The block has been stratigraphically delineated, with two licences issued vertically over the same area. The ministry said this aimed to ensure that the full potential of the acreage was explored, since companies could be inclined to relinquish shallow reservoirs, which tend to be more gas prone in the Albertine Graben, as opposed to the deep reservoirs, which are more oil prone.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) intends to provide debt financing of up to $100m to the owner-operator of the 250MW Bujagali hydropower plant to refinance its existing debt. The private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group said on 15 September that it plans to provide an A loan of up to $100m and a B loan of up to $60m towards the estimated $500m required by Bujagali Energy Limited (BEL) to refinance its existing loans and to fund costs associated with the prepayment of existing loans and the refinancing.

M-Kopa Solar has secured $80m of funding which will be used over the next three years to provide finance for pay-as-you-go solar installations in 1m East African homes in addition to the 500,000 already connected. In the largest commercial debt facility to date in the pay-as-you-go off-grid energy sector, Stanbic Bank is leading a $55m local currency equivalent debt facility and has committed $9m.

Australia’s Armour Energy has been granted an exploration licence for the Kanywataba Block at the southern end of Lake Albert following Uganda’s first licensing round in 2015. The 344km2 acreage was previously operated by CNOOC, which drilled an unsuccessful well in 2012, but the block was among the areas relinquished by the consortium developing the main Albertine Graben fields. A crude oil export pipeline is planned to be built from Lake Albert to the Tanzanian port of Tanga.

Uganda in mid-August signed a memorandum of understanding to build a high-voltage electricity interconnection with Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This would allow Uganda to sell power to eastern Congo, using surplus generated by new hydropower dams, energy minister Irene Muloni said. The transmission line would run some 350km from a substation in Fort Portal to Beni, Bunia and Butembo in eastern DRC.

On 5 August, presidents Yoweri Museveni and John Pombe Magufuli broke ground for a 1,445km export pipeline to carry Ugandan crude from Hoima to Tanzania’s Tanga port. The heated pipeline will be the longest of its kind in the world, and the governments have agreed that the $3.5bn project will be completed by 2020, though financing has yet to be secured.The 216,000 b/d buried pipeline, with six pumping stations and two pressure reduction stations, will be developed by upstream partners Total E&P, CNOOC and Tullow Oil together with the two governments.