Energy Crisis Of Uganda, And The Greater Eastern African Community

Freedman then talks about why there is so much energy poverty in Africa. In some places increasing economic growth and population growth have combined to overtake the supply of

In sub Saharan Africa, the region's wild rivers, windswept savannas and sunny skies represent a vast challenge and an enormous opportunity for a region starved for power.

It was in the Spring of 2013, in a remote village in Malaysia, when I realized that I want to pursue a meaningful career in the field of energy access and human development. I spent around 10 days in the pristine forests, rivers and mountains of Buayan village, as part of my master’s course “Energy and Poverty Solutions” field trip. The objective of our trip was to conduct field assessments and explore solutions to improve the energy access situation in the village. Buayan had a micro-hydro energy system that had broken down and stayed idle for months, leaving many in the community without electricity. Some of the locals adapted to the new situation, while others operated loud and polluting generators that relied on

In Ghana, however, the practice of delivering modern energy systems has been existent for several decades. It is evidence from the amount of interactions and initiatives the

Ethiopia belongs to the non-oil exporting less developed countries of Africa. Ethiopia imports all of its petroleum products and the demand for petroleum fuel is rising rapidly due to the growing economy of about 10% GDP growth and infrastructure development. In the second quarter of 2007/08, petroleum imports exceeded export earnings by 30%. With the recent trends and volatility of oil prices, the country has been forced to develop a biofuel strategy to mitigate the impacts of imported oil on its economy. The strategy encourages the diversification of energy supplies in the transport sector; therefore, biofuel offers significant opportunities for Ethiopia (MME, 2007). Ethiopia’s demand for electricity and petroleum fuels will grow at 11.6 and 9.3

Additionally, difficulty is likely to be encountered in achieving developmental goals as Kenya has for a long time fallen victim to plundering of national assets whose development and broad distribution are essential for economic growth and prosperity. In this way, the newly discovered natural resources could threaten the success of Kenya 's developmental goals. Nevertheless, renewable energy will play a significant role as the driver of Kenyan economic growth and improvements to the standard of living and furnish Kenya with the large scale supplies of electricity needed of Vision 2030 's flagship projects.

So the realization of the project can be considered the minimum condition and the basis for attracting investments and improving the economy of the country. So for the long term plans the Uganda needs electricity. Uganda’s GDP vs. other sub-Saharan countries Country Population Power consumed per GDP (US mil) GDP per GDP per capital annual capital (kWh) capital (%) growth 1990 to 2001 Uganda 22,788 71 5,675 249 3.6 Dem. Rep. of 52,354 73 5,187 99 -7,7 Congo Kenya 30,736 130 11,396 371 -0,6 Rwanda 7,933 18 1,703 196 -1,3 Sudan 31,695 70 12,525 395 3,2 Tanzania 34,450 80 9,341 271 0,4 good 2. Financial aspects of the Dam project. ?

The percentages of population per country with access to electricity (i) and modern non-solid fuels (ii) are currently being measured by The World Bank (The World Bank Database, 2015). In total, 1.2 billion people in the world have no access to electricity while 1 billion more have access only to unreliable services. Finally, nearly 3 billion people rely on solid fuels for everyday energy requirements (United Nations Foundation, 2013)

The first two targets respectively are to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy services by 2030 (target 7.1) and to significantly increase the amount of renewable energy services in use by that time (7.2) (U.N., 2015). These targets aim to measure the amount of the population who has access to energy and to ensure that the methods of energy are sustainable, renewable, and cost effective. As stated by U.N. in the SDGs “it is estimated that in 2015 still about 2.8 billion people have no access to modern energy services and over 1.1 billion do not have electricity.” (U.N., 2015). Clearly the target of universal accessibility to energy is already being measured on a global scale and is seen as an important issue. Several studies have been done on the state of energy services in specific countries as well. Shami and colleagues looked into the feasibility of wind farms in Pakistan to diversify its energy services and correct the issue of frequent blackouts that’s been affecting the region (Shami, 2016). Another study, done by Sanusi Ohiare, looks at the costs associated with expanding electricity service to all of Nigeria to comply with the 2030 target set out by the U.N. (Ohiare, 2015). These studies address all the requirements of the two targets. While more developed countries are fortunate enough to ensure access to energy

Kenya and Uganda are neighbours. They are all within East Africa together with Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. Even though they are within the same region; their development status in agriculture, industrialization, democracy, health, and education economies differ greatly.

Deeply concerned about the lack of universal access to energy in many developing countries, specifically in rural areas,

There is a close relationship between the quality of energy and poverty and enhancing livelihoods of the poor in the developing economies. Therefore, there is a direct need for the poor to gain access to clean energies not only to meet their energy needs but to maintain the quality of the environment. Now the challenge before the developing economies is how maintain this balance? Whenever realised, this will come with a number of benefits such as, higher employability, improved sanitation/housing conditions, improved nutrition, more savings for education and health services, and so on. However, there are several challenges to this. “Countries which have a higher Gini coefficient(which compares income levels among the richest and poorest segments of populations), even in situations where energy access indicators show positive growth, the poorest segment of the population may not be benefiting from the growth. In addition, provision

Nearly three billion people worldwide rely on biomass fuels (2.4 billion) and coal (0.4 billion) burnt inefficiently on open fires or simple stoves. These traditional household energy practices have dramatic consequences for health, the environment and socio-economic development. Ensuring access to clean and efficient household energy is therefore a major and urgent challenge faced by low- and middle-income countries. Energy is a key factor for economic and social development. Worldwide, more than two billion people lack access to sustainable and modern energy technologies, (Amigun et al, 2008). In African energy sector, reform is rampant, institutional roles are shifting and new players are entering the market. Rising prices of crude oils and its related pollution which has seen decline in ozone layer has seen many countries adopting renewable methods to substitute this. Othere energy sources like electricity are still out of reach by many people. energy needs of the developing world have to be met in a sustainable manner. The invention and diffusion of green energy technologies in developing countries is one of the strategies perceived as instrumental in combating the negative effects related to the use of traditional hearths (Rwiza, 2009).

Electrification is widely believed to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), based on the assumption that sustainable access to modern energy services fosters economic and social development, and leads to improvements in the quality of life. Yet, particularly in rural Sub Saharan Africa electrification rates are still low, as not far beyond 36 % (as of international study) of the population use electricity. In rural Ethiopia, the electrification rate is even considerably lower. As part of the efforts to achieve the MDGs it is among the national policy priorities of most countries to improve access to electricity – be it via extension of the national grid or decentralized electricity. The national target for Ethiopia, for example, is to augment the overall electrification rate to 90 % by 2015 – a lot times the rate in 1998 E.C. The international donor community joins these efforts and has increased its support to the energy sector in general and electrification projects in particular. As part of these international Endeavours’s, World Bank, Bank of Arab for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), the Kuwait Fund, African Development Bank (AFDB) and bilateral cooperation from development partner countries like Indian Government envisages the sustainable provision of access to modern energy for rural community within the country. Against this background of increasing interestinrural electrification, it is crucial to obtain a more solid basis

Remote or rural regions lacking electricity supply face a lot of challenges for them to get connected to Electricity. They may lie at a reasonable distance from national or regional electricity grids (remote villages in the Amazon) and may have difficulties in getting connected to Electricity (far from urban centers with a difficult terrain such as large rivers or jungles). Naturally they may suffer harsh climatic conditions that render electrification through grid extension a perilous task . In adding to these challenges, the rural poor areas without access to electricity either spend relatively large amounts of their scarce financial resources on energy, or a disproportionate amount of time collecting firewood from the jungle or also lead to depletion of natural resources.