| dc.description.abstract | In 2020,the parliament of Uganda operationalized seven cities including Masaka, Mbale, Mbarara etc. The creation of these cities is crucial for economic growth. As a result, improved infrastructure and social service provision is expected in terms of new hospitals, commercial centers, new schools coupled with population growth and this will increase energy consumption. Additionally, the bulk of cities’ current distribution networks are hampered by outdated network components, poor voltage regulation, and inconsistent supply. This project’s main objective was to examine the technical and reliability performance of the case study’s existing distribution network and suggest potential changes to enhance supply quality and support anticipated load growth. A case study, Mbarara City, was chosen. The four 11kV feeders from Mbarara Central Substation were the main focus of this project. In addition to high-level scoping of the area, data about load data, network data, and reliability statistics were collected from UMEME. The network was modelled in ArcGIS and DIgSILENT using the network data. For the system,
load flow and reliability analyses were carried out. Basing on the results obtained and feeder load projections for the next 10 years, three possible network option were analyzed to address the challenges found of the network. A payback period
cost analysis method was used to assess the cost implications of the best technical option. Therefore, from the analysis of the interventions, addition of two substations (Kabwohe and Mbarara Town) was found to be more technically and financially feasible option as it improved the voltage quality of the worst performing feeder from -37.1% to -1.7%, the loading of each of the feeders was reduced by an average of 31%, the ENS of the network reduced by approximately 50% and lower cost benefit ratio and payback period. | en_US |
