The University is set to benefit from a lowered average tariff at the main campus, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between UMEME and Makerere University at 10:00am today, 12th February 2010.

The University is set to benefit from a lowered average tariff at the main campus, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between UMEME and Makerere University at 10:00am today, 12th February 2010.

 Herbert Kanyali, UMEME District Manager – Wandegeya and project manager for the installation, appreciated the patience exhibited by the Makerere community during the final two weeks of intensive engineering work on the meter centralization project. He further revealed that with the successful installation of this unit, plans are underway to install a similar meter around the Makerere College School area.

Dr Da Silva, Director, Center for Research in Energy and Energy Conservation (CREEC) Makerere University, expressed his pleasure at seeing this project, which started in November 2009 with Prof. Luboobi, finally being completed. He observed that whereas the university was a bulky consumer of energy, it was until Wednesday this week still being charged at the retail rate “The energy consumed at the main campus alone is more than four times the one consumed by large industries such as Roofings (U) Ltd.” He further revealed that Makerere was already benefiting from the installation, seeing as the institution had managed to save Nine million shillings in electricity bills, since Wednesday 10th February when the bulk meter was commissioned.

In his speech, Dr. Tickodri-Tobgoa, who represented the Acting Vice-Chancellor Prof. Baryamureeba was glad to see that both the engineers and members of staff who actively participated in the project were products of his Engineering classes over a twenty-four year span. As energy is a vital component of daily university operations, he noted that the improved tariff rates as a result of Bulk metering will guarantee sufficient energy for staff and students to enable them excel, as exhibited by the recently released world university rankings . He observed that with the adoption of bulk metering by Makerere and similar sized institutions, the days of load shedding would soon be a thing of the past as energy efficiency would be drastically improved.

Mr. Fredrick Kitandwe, UMEME Area Manager, Kampala Central, flanked by Ms. Charlotte Kemigyisha, UMEME Head of Corporate Relations, thanked the Makerere team for its cooperation, which saw the successful completion of the project. He reiterated UMEME’s commitment to lowering the cost of power to the end users, while managing energy losses. “It is through such innovative measures of working with our customers that we intend to make power cheaper and more affordable to our communities. In this initiative, we are working closely with the Small Medium Enterprises to enable them benefit from a better tariff category, which is billed at 184.8Shs per Kwh under code 30, down from 333.0Shs per Kwh under code 20.” He said.

Both parties then signed and exchanged the Memoranda of Understanding, before proceeding to the Eastern gate, where Mr. Kitandwe officially handed over the bulk metering facility to Dr. Togboa. Mr. Kahundha Muhwezi, The University Secretary, lauded UMEME for the timely installation, which will see the university save over 1.2billion shillings annually in electricity bills.