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Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL) invites expressions of interest by 11 September for consulting services for a feasibility study for the rehabilitation and optimisation of the Nalubaale and Kiira hydropower plants. The 180MW Nalubaale and 200MW Kiira hydropower plants are located at the source of the River Nile, near Jinja on Lake Victoria. The ten 18MW units of Nalubaale were commissioned in stages between 1954 and 1968, while the five 40MW units of Kiira were brought on line between 2000 and 2004.

The government says it has agreed core project terms with a new consortium to develop its controversial refinery project. The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development said the Albertine Graben Refinery Consortium was made up of GE Oil & Gas, US developer Yaatra Ventures, and a company named as Intracontinent Asset Holdings, with Saipem as engineering, procurement and construction partner. “The consortium has proposed to government a financing approach and a path to establish, develop and operate a commercially viable refinery company with a strategic benefit to the country and the region,” a ministry statement said.

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.

Renewable energy company Fenix International has appointed Jit Bhattacharya as its chief technology officer. Pointing to the trend for established executives from technology and finance companies to move into offgrid, Bhattacharya, best known for his pioneering work in electric vehicles, including energy storage systems, will relocate from Silicon Valley to Uganda. Bhattacharya has been a senior manager in Apple’s special projects group since 2014. Before that he headed Mission Motors, a technology developer for electric vehicles (including a record-breaking electric motorcycle).

The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) and Dutch development bank FMO are jointly lending $29.3m of senior debt with a 12-year term to refinance the 13MW Bugoye hydroelectric power plant in western Uganda. The refinancing agreements were signed on 13 July, with financial close expected around four weeks later. Proceeds from the refinancing will be used to repay EAIF the balance of its original loan to the project, fund repair work and repay construction loans made by the project sponsor, the Africa Renewable Energy Fund (Aref), managed by Berkeley Energy.

Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL), invites prequalification applications by 7 August for separate contracts for the main civil works and electrical and mechanical supply for the 48MW Muzizi hydropower project. The diversion-type project on the Muzizi River will be implemented under an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract financed by KfW Development Bank, the Agence Française de Développement and the government of Uganda. The prequalification process is based on two separate lots – Lot 1, civil works, and Lot 2, electromechanical works – with bidders able to apply for one or the other.

Once the right economics and policies are put in place, the pace of advance made by the most successful renewable energy types, including wind power and solar photovoltaic (PV), can be exceptionally fast. Extrapolations of continent-wide trends by the new African Energy Live data (Live data) suggest that sustainable technologies can replace polluting (and, increasingly, often costlier) thermal solutions which include the diesel, heavy fuel oil and charcoal that hundreds of millions in sub-Saharan Africa have come to depend on.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation (Rosatom) on cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.The MoU, signed by minister of state for energy Simon D’Ujanga and Rosatom deputy director-general Nikolai Spasskiy at the Atomexpo 2017 event in Moscow on 19 June, establishes a framework for cooperation with a focus on development of nuclear power infrastructure in Uganda and the uses of radioisotopes and radiation technologies in industry, medicine, agriculture and other areas.

Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL) invites expressions of interest from consultants by 29 June to prepare the construction of two small greenfield run-of-river hydropower projects and the rehabilitation of an existing facility. The contract, financed by the Agence Française de Développement, will entail studies for the development of the 6.5MW Okulacere plant on the Anyau River and the 2MW Agbinika plant on the Kochi River, both in northern Uganda, and the 1MW Maziba plant in the south-west.

Uganda and Tanzania signed an intergovernmental agreement on their proposed $3.55bn crude export pipeline from Lake Albert to Tanga port on 26 May. The agreement was signed in Kampala by Ugandan energy minister Irene Muloni and Tanzanian minister of constitutional and legal affairs Palamagamba John Kabudi.The 1,445km long, 24-inch diameter pipeline has an ambitious schedule aiming for completion in 2020.

The 5MW Siti 1 hydro plant developed under Uganda’s global energy transfer feed-in tariff (Get FiT) scheme has started operations in the Mount Elgon area of eastern Uganda. The run-of-river plant will power 60,000 homes, schools and businesses. The Netherlands’ FMO arranged a $35m senior loan for the financing of the 5MW Siti 1 and the 16.5MW Siti 2 projects, developed and owned by Elgon Hydro Siti Limited.

Uganda expects to sign a memorandum of understanding with Russia in June on the development of nuclear power. Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development (MEMD) senior energy officer Usamah Kaggwa said AF-Consult Switzerland was developing a nuclear power generation and investment plan for the period to 2040. “This will determine the nuclear fuel supply, reactor technologies and radioactive waste management options, investment and financing plans for the planned nuclear power projects,” Kaggwa said.In October 2016, a delegation from Rosatom, led by Viktor Polikarpov, the company’s regional vice-president for sub-Saharan Africa, visited Uganda and held talks with President Yoweri Museveni.

The first hydropower project to be developed under Uganda’s Global Energy Transfer Feed-in Tariffs (GET FiT) scheme was connected to the grid in mid-March. The 6.5MW Muvumbe run-of-river plant in Kabale district in Western region was developed by Sri Lanka-based small hydropower project developer Vidullanka through its fully-owned subsidiary, Muvumbe Hydro (Uganda) Limited, and involved an investment of $13.5m, the company said in a 14 March filing to the Colombo Stock Exchange.

A project to develop mapping software to find viable sites for micro-hydro projects, aiming to facilitate a mass market for turbines and ease financing for micro-scale projects, has been awarded £274,000 ($333,000) for a pilot project in Uganda. The software uses satellite imaging to look at river gradient and flow and combines it with geographic demographic data to pick out sites which have characteristics suitable for any turbine size.

Uganda’s Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) has appointed Ziria Tibalwa Waako as acting chief executive, replacing Benon Mutambi, who was named last year as permanent secretary in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Waako, who joined ERA as director technical regulation in 2012, will head the ERA secretariat for six months or until the position is filled. Senior ERA staff had been keen to see a successor appointed from within the body to ensure continuity. Waako studied electrical engineering at Makerere University and worked at Uganda Electricity Transmission Company before joining ERA