UEDCL Faces Questions Over Management Gaps and Rising Power Losses

[Archival Sense]

Uganda Electricity Distribution and Supply Company Limited (UEDCL) is facing parliamentary scrutiny over gaps in its management structure and rising electricity distribution losses, just months after taking over the country’s electricity distribution network from Umeme.

The concerns emerged before the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, chaired by Kazo County MP Dan Kimosho Atwijukire, which was told that six of UEDCL’s 13 management positions are being held in acting capacity.

The committee asked the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development to provide a clear timetable for filling the positions substantively, arguing that a company entrusted with a critical national utility requires a stable management structure.

Minister of State for Energy Sidronius Okaasai Opolot told the committee that Government expects UEDCL to have a fully constituted board by mid-September.

But while Parliament questioned who is running the company, another set of figures raised questions about how effectively the electricity distribution network is being managed.

The figures presented to MPs show that Umeme was putting tens of millions of dollars into the distribution network in the years before the handover.

In 2021 alone, Umeme invested about US$72 million. The following year, the investment fell to US$34 million, before dropping further to US$23 million in 2023 and nearly US$10 million in 2024.

Umeme’s investment moved from roughly US$72 million at its peak in the figures presented to the committee to less than US$10 million three years later.

The annual figures add up to approximately US$139 million. The committee, however, rejected a previously cited US$132 million aggregate because it did not match the individual annual figures presented.

UEDCL’s investment since taking over the network has so far been much smaller.

Officials told the committee that the company has invested about US$1.5 million, which is roughly UGX 5 billion, including money spent on new electricity connections.

The contrast gives the committee a simple question to consider: how much investment is required to keep the network growing and in good condition, and is UEDCL investing enough to meet that need?
The most striking figures, however, relate to electricity losses.

When UEDCL took over the distribution network, losses stood at roughly 15 per cent. They have since risen to about 18.5 per cent.

That may sound like a modest increase of three and a half percentage points. But UEDCL's own explanation shows why the figure matters.

Management told MPs that every one percentage point of annualized losses is worth about US$7 million which approximates to roughly Shs25 billion.

Therefore, a three percentage point loss represents around US$21 million (about Shs75 billion) every year.

That is money attached to electricity that has been generated but does not translate into the equivalent amount of electricity successfully delivered and accounted for.

The committee has asked UEDCL to calculate the actual monetary value of the current losses.

Courtesy photos