Uganda Seeks Contractors for Karuma Hydropower Plant, Sets a Bid Deadline

Uganda is seeking contractors to build the 700-megawatt Karuma hydropower plant in the northwestern region of the country along the Nile River, the Energy Ministry said.

International bidding for the project will close Oct. 20 in time to start works early next year, the Kampala-based ministry said in a statement published in the Daily Monitor newspaper today.

Construction of the $1.3 billion plant with five turbines will be financed by the state-run Energy Investment Fund and supervised by the government’s Uganda Electricity Generation Co., the ministry said. The project was upgraded to 700 megawatts from 200 megawatts following the government’s assumption of full control after talks with Norway’s Norpak Power Ltd., the initial promoter, collapsed in mid-2008, according to the ministry.

Uganda can currently produce 361 megawatts of power, which isn’t enough to meet demand, according to the nation’s state-run Electricity Regulatory Authority. The East African nation is promoting investment in its energy industry to spur economic growth and enable it to export electricity to neighboring states.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Ojambo in Kampala via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

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