Uganda Seeks Contractors for New Hydropower Plant

Uganda is inviting bids from contractors to build a hydropower plant that will produce up to 700MW and cost about $900m, according to the country’s energy ministry.

The Karuma Falls project includes a 600-700MW hydropower facility with an underground power station housing five turbines, Reuters has reported.

Energy Minister Hilary Onek told Reuters that ordinarily, 1MW should cost $1m, but other expenses have raised the cost of the project.

“So for the Karuma dam, which will be about 700MW, we’re estimating it will cost about $900m,” Onek said.

Work on the plant, to be built on the River Nile, will begin in 2011 and will include planning and engineering, civil construction including supply of equipment and materials and installation of hydro-mechanical and electro-mechanical equipment.

Source: http://www.power-technology.com

Power Failure Contingency Plan

Winston Churchill once said “He who fails to plan is planning to fail”

Given the frequency of power outages due to load shedding, poor maintenance of electric sub-stations (and the main ones of course), theft of copper cabling, corruption within the departments resulting in a shortage of taxpayers’ money in the coffers to instal critically required and vital upgrades to power stations, I was researching contingency plans in an effort that we might be better prepared for when this happens, which is almost a daily occurence.

Power Failure Contingency Planning

The difficulty with being prepared however comes with not knowing when the power is going to be cut, the duration of the loadshedding or in fact whether it is loadshedding or just merely electric sub-stations that are so poorly maintaned and monitored that they just cannot handle even the very basic electricity consumptions.

Contingency Plan

• Consider purchasing a small generator or know where to rent one if you use life sustaining equipment that requires electrical power.

• Post the telephone number of the New Construction, Repairs and Power Outage listing of your local utility.

• If you own an electric garage door opener, learn how to open the door without power.

• Prepare a power outage kit. For short duration outages consider having glow light sticks, flashlights, batterypowered radio, extra batteries and a wind-up clock on hand.

• Make sure you have an alternate heat source and a supply of fuel.

• Report power outages to the utility company.

• Have a corded telephone available.  Cordless telephones do not work during outages.

• When installing generators, follow the manufacturer’s instructions and have it inspected by the utility company and the state electrical inspector.

Read the full article.

Source: http://donnette.wordpress.com