Challenges Facing the Transmission of Electricity in Uganda: Case study of Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited

Abstract

Developing countries like Uganda have continued to grapple with power shortages. The impact of this problem has resulted to poor performance of the business sector that relies on the electricity supply .Against this problem, the study sought to assess the challenges in the transmission in Uganda. Specific objectives of this study where to find out the roles played by UETCL in transmission of electricity in Uganda, to identify the environmental, economic and physical challenges faced by UETCL in transmission of electricity and lastly to find out the policy intervention aimed at addressing the challenges faced in the transmission of electricity in Uganda. A cross section research approach was adopted and purposive sampling was applied to select Senior Management employees, junior management employees and field officers and a sample of 43 employees of UETCL participated in this study. Data was collected using a questionnaire and data entry and analysis done using SPSS 23.0. The result of this study shows that 67.4% of the study participants were males while 32.6% were females. 53.5% had degrees, 30.2% had masters while 16.3% had diplomas. 44.2% were employed as field officers, 23.3% were regular office managers and 14% were junior managers while 16.3% were senior managers. Most (48.8%) had 4 to 6years of work experience while 27.9% had more than 7years, and 23.3% had 1 to 3 years. Objectively, the role of UETCL were to conduct regular maintenance of the high voltage grids (100%). Carry out regular operations with regard to continuous project implementation (95.3%). Carry out regular improvement of the high voltage transmission grid (83.7%). And lastly development establishment of the high voltage and transmission centers (81.4%), heavy rainfall( 53.49%) poor topography (39.53%), mudslides (6.97%) while economic challenges include; high costs of maintenance of transmission installation (27.91%).low domestic power demand (25.58%). High costs of purchasing new installation (16.28%). Shortage of specialized skills (16.28%) and high cost of compensating (13.95%).and lastly physical challenges were found to be; aging infrastructure (44.19%). Settlements under the transmission grid (27.91%), rapid urbanization (18.6%) and lastly poor inter- agency coordination (9.3%). Government and UETCL had undertaken sensitization (37.2%), replacement of age installation (25.6%) and borrowing of funds to address the electricity transmission challenges.