OPINION
As UEDCL marks nearly a year as a primary distribution holder in March, the company must shift focus from merely adding connections to strengthening grid resilience, as rapid expansion without addressing existing weaknesses, like vandalism, poor infrastructure, and overloaded transformers.
Uganda’s power sector stands at cross roads, as the Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) plans for 2026/2027, a strategic pivot towards grid resilience over a complete rapid expansion is crucial for sustainable development, transforming potential into power, not just more outages.
The system of adding new customers and lines is strong, promising industrial growth and rural electrification yet, simply expanding a fragile network is like building more roads without fixing potholes more so congestion and breakdowns persist, sometimes worsening.
Uganda’s grid faces challenges ranging from transformer theft, vandalism, inadequate protection, and overloaded components leading to frequent failures. Adding more connections to this unstable base strains it further, creating a vicious cycle of instability.
Investing in high quality, appropriately sized transformers and smart grid technologies that can handle demand and self-heal should be considered.
The recently launched wetereeze campaign should be strengthened in combating vandalism and theft through collaborating with security and making anti vandalism measures integral to infrastructure design.
Moreso, phased strategic upgrades should also be prioritized for instance, upgrading substations like the recent Kampala south upgrade to reduce strain and improve voltage stability, rather than just chasing connection numbers.
Furth more, while local transformer sourcing is good, ensuring quality and swift deployment is key, as poor quality equipment only postpones failures.
Therefore, as we log out of 2026 election season to 2026/2027 budget, finance and planning phase, UEDCL must champion a new narrative not just connecting more, but connecting better.
By embedding resilience into every plan, investing in protection, and fostering community vigilance, UEDCL can build a robust, dependable network, truly powering Uganda’s inclusive growth and unlocking its immense energy potential.
A resilient, reliable grid isn’t just about preventing blackouts, it’s about powering Uganda’s sustainable future.
The choice is clear fragile growth or a resilient future and the time to build that future is now.
By Doreen Asasira
An Environmentalist and climate acdvocate
