West Nile Power Saga: WENRECo, Electromaxx disagree over fuel deal

BY ANDREW COHEN AMVESI  

ARUA. West Nile Rural Electrification Company (WENRECo) and Electromaxx managers have bitterly disagreed over fuel deal.

Our insider within WENRECo revealed to us last night that the sharp disagreement between the two companies started when the bosses of a local fuel station in Arua demanded to be paid for fuel supplied to Electromaxx. 

The fuel supplied to Electromaxx was allegedly worth Ugandan shillings 1.2 billion, according to our source.

The supplier was directed by WENRECo to supply fuel following the continuing terrible power shortage outcry by the people in the region.

The directive was, however, given without any formal bailout agreement between WENRECo and Electromaxx. The two companies are autonomous after signing different contracts with the government of Uganda to play separate electricity related roles in West Nile.

But after fueling Electromaxx generators without any formal agreement, our source said WENRECo attempted to ask Electromaxx to pay the fuel bill, a request the no nonsense Electromaxx managers rejected outrightly.

As a result, we have been reliably informed that WENRECo management has started paying off the fuel bill contrary to their contractual obligations.

Earlier on during the visit of the Members of the Parliamentary Committee on Environment and Natural Resources to Arua, Peace Flavia Maturu, the WENRECo Electrical Engineer acknowledged that WENRECo committed itself to buy fuel for Electromaxx without any agreement.

“It happened again on July 12 up to 21, 2022 that we also had rampant power outages still because of fuel challenges on the side of Electromaxx. This one of December happened by the festival season and WENRECo had to come in despite the fact that we have no agreement with Electromaxx. WENRECo spent some significant amount of money to buy fuel for Electromaxx to supply power. It surely happened,” Maturu told the MPs last week without stating exactly how much money WENRECo spent to fuel Electromaxx generators.

Our reliable source in WENRECo circles also revealed to us that after spending millions of shillings on the failed repair of the faulty generator at Nyagak power dam eight months down the road, WENRECo management decided to disconnect the automated switch at Ewuata thermal plant.

Since then, the 1.75MW of power currently being generated from Nyagak dam due to the spoilt generator is only supplied to the districts of Zombo, Nebbi and Pakwach.

The rest of the districts including Arua, Terego, Madi Okollo, Maracha, Koboko, Yumbe, Arua City and Arua Municipality rely on the generators of Electromaxx and that is why, once the generators run out of fuel, all the beneficiary districts remain in darkness.

It is also alleged that Kenneth Kigumba, the WENRECo General Manager fell out with the four senior engineers he recently fired over the same reason.

We are told that the engineers tried to advise Kigumba not to disconnect the automated switch but balance the hydro power with the thermal generated electricity by load shedding different areas at least after every 8 hours as it used to be, an advice the General Manager refused and instead showed the engineers the exit route.