By Our Reporter
Wednesday was a happy day at the Eskom Uganda-managed Nalubaale Hydro plant in Njeru. It was a morning characterized by popping of champagne, cake cutting, praises to the Lord and lots of hugs as the management and staff celebrate the recommissioning of Unit 3 back into service.
At the Control room, The Managing Director Ms. Thozama Gangi, Finance Director Mr. Stephen Byaruhanga, Ag.Technical Director Daniel Oluga and a team of Technical staff watched with heightened anticipation as engineers carried out load rejection and step response tests for the addition of 18 Megawatts onto the national electricity grid. The room exploded into songs of “praise the Lord” and hugs when the tests proved successful.
A visibly excited Thozama hugged each of the staff present before saying; “I thank the EUL team on behalf of EUL Board of Directors and Management for the tireless effort, your determination, resilience and commitment cannot be compared. I equally thank the contractors who worked closely with our Engineers i.e. Andritz Hydro and ABB, your input were invaluable. I also recognise the contribution made by other individual contractors through this journey. Thank you all for the technical input.”
Eskom had embarked on repairs and replacement of obsolete components of Unit 3 a few years back. With successful completion of Unit 3, it now operates and maintains 10 Units with a capacity of 18 Megawatts each at Nalubaale plant and five Units with a capacity of 42 Megawatts each at Kiira Hydro Power plant.
Eskom Uganda Limited is dedicated to driving excellent asset care and has repeatedly demonstrated this without compromising safety of personnel and damage to equipment.