WEST NILE — The entire West Nile has been plunged into historic power blackout after regional power distributor WENRECO announced it had run short of fuel to power generators, this week.
West Nile Rural Electrification Company- WENRECO, projects to switch back power after one week, saying they have failed to get fuel to run generators at Ewuata in Vurra County.
WENRECo says fuel supply constraints for the 3.2 megawatts Electro thermal Power Plant in Arua keeps affecting supplemental power generation.
The electro power plant was established in 2019 with aims of boosting the 3.5 megawatts Nyagak hydroelectric plant as the region’s electricity demand shot up to about 6 megawatts.
“WENRECo informs it’s esteemed customers that there will be load shedding of electricity supply from Monday 16th to 22nd August, 2021, 8:00am to 10:00pm due to fuel supply contrains affecting supplemental Electromax thermo plant,” WENRECO said in a shocking statement.
The affected districts include Arua Central Business District, Zombo, Nebbi, Pakwach, Maracha, Koboko, Oraba & Yumbe districts.
WENRECO is a subsidiary of Industrial Power Services (IPS) of the Agha Khan. It supplies power to the West Nile through diesel powered generators.
The impact of the suspension of WENRECO power supplies is expected to be far reaching.
It is expected that the most hit sectors will be the small and medium scale businesses, which are already struggling against tough economic times stemming from Covid-19 powered lockdowns.
Officials from Electromax, who generate thermo electricity to supplement Nyagak hydro power could not be reached as their known telephone contacts went unanswered.
