Assessment of an optimum location for an 8 MW thermal power plant for the West Nile grid

Abstract

West Nile is composed of districts that include Adjumani, Arua, Koboko, Maracha, Moyo, Nebbi, Yumbe and Zombo. It is the only region in Uganda that is not fully connected to the national grid, it is supplied by the Nyagak hydro power plant, and on river Nyagak which is a seasonal river coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The demand on the WENRECo network is increasing, exceeding the current supply. Together with the reduced water levels of the Nyagak river in dry seasons, has brought about load shedding of the area. Long distances over which power is transmitted, have led to high technical losses resulting in a power deficiency in the region making power very unreliable in the region. This project proposes an optimal location of an 8MW thermal power plant which is necessary as it addresses all the aforementioned challenges on the network. Results show that the performance of the network is greatly improved with the power plant located at Manibe