Karuma Hydro Power Project.
General Narrative
The 600MW Karuma HPP is located on the Nile River in Kiryandongo District in mid-northern Uganda, 110km downstream of Lake Kyoga, and 270km from Kampala the Capital of Uganda.
Key Dates
Original project completion date: December, 2018
Extended project completion date: June, 2023 (this date is due to change with the ongoing discussions for Extension of Time)
Project Status
Physical progress – 99.9%
Time spent – 100% (deadline as per Addendum #7 is July 1st, 2023, as extended from June 30th 2022 in the Addendum #6 negotiations)
- Civil Works: Dam, Spillways, and Intake structures: Works downstream of Dam block #16 are ongoing to provide safe access to the reinstated monitoring benchmark and strong-motion sensor readouts.
Reservoir surveillance exercise, in compliance with the Dam Safety Management System, was undertaken upstream of the dam location to identify the source & type of weeds, including remedial ways to reduce trash-rack clogging weed inflow into the Karuma HPP reservoir.
- HRT, Powerhouse, Surge Chamber, TRT
HRT: water filling for Units #1, #3 & #4 completed. Unit spinning with load rejection tests at 25%, 50% and 75% of full load (100MW) carried out. Trial operation of both Units with grid connection successful and power evacuation is currently through the Karuma – Lira line.
TRT: The operation room plaster is 100% complete for the interior and the exterior.
Application of putty is complete for low voltage distribution room, DG room, and tank room.
Powerhouse: construction of firewalls for all unit stairways completed. Ongoing works include concrete backfilling for drainage pipes behind the walls.
Door installation works ongoing in the Auxiliary Powerhouse section. Decoration works (putty application and wall painting) ongoing at the Erection bay, and El.942.0m of the Main Powerhouse. - Main Transformer Cavern: Civil works stand at 100%
- Electromechanical Works & Hydro Mechanical Works:
Unit #3 governor system commissioned
Unit #3 ring gate oil pressure system commissioned – at different water levels in static water mode.
Unit #3 trial run for 7 days successfully done
Unit #3 intake gate drift test passed
- Transmission Lines
100% completion of all lines by UETCL.
Vandalism on the 400kV Karuma – Kawanda line makes evacuating all the commissioned units (300MW) impractical, limiting production to 80MW.
- Percentage of All works completed: Total overall completed work is at 99.9%