Govt Says Power Outages Will Ease After Grid Upgrades, Musenero Urges Patience

What the report says

Nile Post reports that the Ugandan government has linked recent nationwide power outages to ongoing upgrades on the electricity transmission and distribution network, saying the interruptions are temporary. Energy and Mineral Development Minister Dr Monica Musenero told journalists at the Uganda Media Centre on Wednesday that the shutdowns are connected to works intended to strengthen an ageing grid and support rising demand.

According to the report, Musenero said demand has grown because of expanding industrial use, more household connections and government programmes to widen electricity access. She said Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited now has about 2.7 million customers, national access stands at 62%, more than 76,000 customers have been added since January, and about 500,000 applications are pending. UEDCL plans another 300,000 connections over the next five months as materials become available.

The minister identified the Kampala Metropolitan Transmission System Improvement Project as a major cause of the current disruptions. Nile Post reports that the JICA-funded project is 91% complete and expected to be finished by August 8, 2026. It includes new substations at Maya in Buloba and Mukono, upgrades at Kawaala, Mutundwe and Bujagali, reinforcement of 132kV lines, and a mobile substation at Namungoona. Musenero said planned shutdowns are needed for worker and public safety.

Musenero also cited vandalism of towers, conductors, transformers and poles as a contributor to outages, urging the public to report suspicious activity to police, UEDCL or UETCL. The government says the works should improve reliability, reduce future interruptions and expand grid capacity, while reporting gains in industrial power availability, network uptime, losses, revenue collection and fault response.