Alliance for Clean Cooking (UNACC). Also, following the introduction of the Chinese and Taiwanese
silicon solar PV products to the country, the Government of Uganda launched the Rural Electrification
Strategy and Plan (RESP) in 2001 but it is yet to align
the energy policy to support prosumerism.
4.1.3 Increased research effort
The increased proliferation of research institutions
simplified the monitoring efforts. There has been
increased timely dissemination of the sector’s homegrown solutions, challenges, and emerging issues. The
output from the research institutions also served to
guide policy formulation and review implementation
strategies and plans. A cross section of these research
institutions included the Global Green Growth Institute, which signed a 5-year working relationship
with the government of Uganda, to foster green economic growth through the implementation of a planning framework that sought to support government
efforts in expanding investments in renewable energy;
the NRECA International which partnered with the
Renewable Energy Agency (REA) to define the
Uganda’s electrification strategy through the Accelerated Rural Electrification Programme funded by
the World Bank. Their aim was to develop a master electrification plan for one new electric service
territory in Uganda. Today, the team is on course, laying the groundwork to produce master plans for all
13 territories of the country’s electric service funded
by the USAID/Power Africa. Likewise, an immense
contribution was registered by the interventions of
Energy4Impact, an organization that supports businesses serving off-grid communities with a range of
services for business development services, and access
to finance and project development for innovative
models.
Efforts from research institutions such as Rocky
Mountain Institute provide businesses, communities,
institutions, and entrepreneurs with information that
supports the accelerated adoption of market-based
solutions towards a cost-effective shift from fossil
fuels to efficient and renewable resources. These
interventions supported the government of Uganda
in the development and implementation of an integrated electrification strategy that sought to drive
energy access and economic growth. Organizations
such as Duke Nicholas Institute continuously engage
in direct research on policy issues towards addressing the challenges around increased access to modern
energy solutions among the disadvantaged communities. Notably, these efforts have led to the development
of new disruptive tools, such as the means to evaluate
electricity access through machine learning techniques
that are applied to aerial imagery data. Additionally, some of these organizations enabled businesses,
investors, development partners, and government to
identify the appropriate impactful ways to support offgrid energy access. For instance, the Catalyst of Grid
Advisor assisted the Rural Electrification Agency to
develop an off-grid electrification strategy for Uganda.
This entailed active engagement with the private sector
actors and developers to coordinate the development of
renewable energy mini-grids, including recommending stand-alone energy solutions as an integral part of
a greater national electrification planning paradigm
(ERA, 2017).
4.2 Drawbacks to the renewable energy policy
implementation sustainability
The transition to a renewable-energy economy is
indeed a collective and gradual but complicated longterm process that summons interventions from multiple actors for effective social change (Anderson et
al., 2015). This covers a wide spectrum of technological, organizational, socio-economic, and political
changes (Markard et al., 2012). Given the wide range
of stakeholder involvement and resource requirement,
government and the concerned implementing entities
undoubtedly encountered a multiplicity of bottlenecks
in a drive to achieve the transition to renewable energy
consumption in Uganda. Briefly, some of the key
drawbacks are reviewed below.
4.2.1 Limited resources and inadequate capacity
building
Whereas efforts to extend the main power grid to rural
areas have gradually taken shape in Uganda, its implementation calls for the deployment of a substantial
amount of resources. The natural alternative would
be to have solar-powered mini-grids as the ultimate
answer to rural access to electricity; however, due to
resource limitations, this has remained a challenge
across the board. The otherwise small and remote communities that would be well-suited for solar mini-grids
are not a “one size fits all” category and this further
complicates the transition. Ultimately this works to
reduce cross-subsidization of customers. Sadly, the
costs of providing access are unbearably high due
to the remoteness of the sites, dispersed populations,
and difficulty of the terrain. Regrettably, the tariff for
domestic consumers connected on the main grid is
equally not motivating enough due to the relatively
high domestic tariff currently operating at 0.15 €/0.19
USD per kWh (UMEME, 2014). This tariff is relatively higher than that for the industrial consumers
because the supply at low voltage is associated with
higher investment and systems operational costs than
it is for the industrial consumers who are supplied at
high voltage or medium voltage (Umeme, 2015).
The RET equipment requires a skilled workforce
to operate and conduct maintenance which resonates
with the works of Wilkins (2010). The need for specialized skills calls for routine training especially in
the advent of sophistication in the architectures of
the technologies used; first to conduct installation
and to provide after sales extension services as well
as to create awareness of the availability and operational features of RET. Technical support to support
the diffusion of RETs, such as the solar PV systems
among rural communities, calls for a large workforce
220
silicon solar PV products to the country, the Government of Uganda launched the Rural Electrification
Strategy and Plan (RESP) in 2001 but it is yet to align
the energy policy to support prosumerism.
4.1.3 Increased research effort
The increased proliferation of research institutions
simplified the monitoring efforts. There has been
increased timely dissemination of the sector’s homegrown solutions, challenges, and emerging issues. The
output from the research institutions also served to
guide policy formulation and review implementation
strategies and plans. A cross section of these research
institutions included the Global Green Growth Institute, which signed a 5-year working relationship
with the government of Uganda, to foster green economic growth through the implementation of a planning framework that sought to support government
efforts in expanding investments in renewable energy;
the NRECA International which partnered with the
Renewable Energy Agency (REA) to define the
Uganda’s electrification strategy through the Accelerated Rural Electrification Programme funded by
the World Bank. Their aim was to develop a master electrification plan for one new electric service
territory in Uganda. Today, the team is on course, laying the groundwork to produce master plans for all
13 territories of the country’s electric service funded
by the USAID/Power Africa. Likewise, an immense
contribution was registered by the interventions of
Energy4Impact, an organization that supports businesses serving off-grid communities with a range of
services for business development services, and access
to finance and project development for innovative
models.
Efforts from research institutions such as Rocky
Mountain Institute provide businesses, communities,
institutions, and entrepreneurs with information that
supports the accelerated adoption of market-based
solutions towards a cost-effective shift from fossil
fuels to efficient and renewable resources. These
interventions supported the government of Uganda
in the development and implementation of an integrated electrification strategy that sought to drive
energy access and economic growth. Organizations
such as Duke Nicholas Institute continuously engage
in direct research on policy issues towards addressing the challenges around increased access to modern
energy solutions among the disadvantaged communities. Notably, these efforts have led to the development
of new disruptive tools, such as the means to evaluate
electricity access through machine learning techniques
that are applied to aerial imagery data. Additionally, some of these organizations enabled businesses,
investors, development partners, and government to
identify the appropriate impactful ways to support offgrid energy access. For instance, the Catalyst of Grid
Advisor assisted the Rural Electrification Agency to
develop an off-grid electrification strategy for Uganda.
This entailed active engagement with the private sector
actors and developers to coordinate the development of
renewable energy mini-grids, including recommending stand-alone energy solutions as an integral part of
a greater national electrification planning paradigm
(ERA, 2017).
4.2 Drawbacks to the renewable energy policy
implementation sustainability
The transition to a renewable-energy economy is
indeed a collective and gradual but complicated longterm process that summons interventions from multiple actors for effective social change (Anderson et
al., 2015). This covers a wide spectrum of technological, organizational, socio-economic, and political
changes (Markard et al., 2012). Given the wide range
of stakeholder involvement and resource requirement,
government and the concerned implementing entities
undoubtedly encountered a multiplicity of bottlenecks
in a drive to achieve the transition to renewable energy
consumption in Uganda. Briefly, some of the key
drawbacks are reviewed below.
4.2.1 Limited resources and inadequate capacity
building
Whereas efforts to extend the main power grid to rural
areas have gradually taken shape in Uganda, its implementation calls for the deployment of a substantial
amount of resources. The natural alternative would
be to have solar-powered mini-grids as the ultimate
answer to rural access to electricity; however, due to
resource limitations, this has remained a challenge
across the board. The otherwise small and remote communities that would be well-suited for solar mini-grids
are not a “one size fits all” category and this further
complicates the transition. Ultimately this works to
reduce cross-subsidization of customers. Sadly, the
costs of providing access are unbearably high due
to the remoteness of the sites, dispersed populations,
and difficulty of the terrain. Regrettably, the tariff for
domestic consumers connected on the main grid is
equally not motivating enough due to the relatively
high domestic tariff currently operating at 0.15 €/0.19
USD per kWh (UMEME, 2014). This tariff is relatively higher than that for the industrial consumers
because the supply at low voltage is associated with
higher investment and systems operational costs than
it is for the industrial consumers who are supplied at
high voltage or medium voltage (Umeme, 2015).
The RET equipment requires a skilled workforce
to operate and conduct maintenance which resonates
with the works of Wilkins (2010). The need for specialized skills calls for routine training especially in
the advent of sophistication in the architectures of
the technologies used; first to conduct installation
and to provide after sales extension services as well
as to create awareness of the availability and operational features of RET. Technical support to support
the diffusion of RETs, such as the solar PV systems
among rural communities, calls for a large workforce
220