Nyagak III Hydro Power Project.
General Narrative
The 6.6 MW Nyagak III Small Hydropower Project (SHPP) is located on the Nyagak River in Zombo District, North-western Uganda, approximately 15 km from Paidha Town Council in Alindi village, Amei Parish, Paidha Sub County. The project is developed and implemented through a private-public partnership (PPP), which originated the constitution of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) called GENMAX Nyagak Ltd (GENMAX) formed between the public partner; UEGCL (30% share of the PPP and SPV); and Private partner: Hydromax Ltd, together with Dott Services Ltd (70% share of the PPP and SPV).
GENMAX Nyagak Limited is in charge of the design, construction and operation of the plant for a period of 20 years after which the plant shall be transferred back to UEGCL.
The Scheme consists of a 7m high Dam located at coordinates 275804.773 N and 274736.530 E, diverting water through trash racks into a 1.318km long pipe conduit of diameter 1.72m which terminates in a Surge tank structure. The water from the Surge tank will enter a 370m long penstock with a diameter of 1.6m and be connected to a surface powerhouse. The penstock bifurcates into two 1.13m diameter pipes of 30m length leading to two horizontal Francis turbines of 3.3MW each. After passing through the Turbines, water is released back into the river through a tailrace channel. The Power generated will be evacuated to the new Nebbi Substation Switchyard via a transmission overhead 33kv line.
Project Overview
- Implementing Agency: Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited
- Civil and Penstock Construction Contractor: DOTT Services Ltd, Kampala, Uganda.
- Electro-Mechanical (EM) Works EPC Contractor: Flovel Energy Private Limited (FEPL), Haryana, India.
- Hydro-Mechanical (HM) Works EPC Contractor: Shree Ganesh Industries Ltd, Bahola District, India.
- Owner’s Engineer: Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE).
- Project Managing Consultant / Independent Engineer: GOPA-International Energy Consultants GmbH (Lead Member, Germany) in association with Zollet Ingegneria S.r.l. (Joint Venture Partner, Italy).
- Project Duration: 70 months
- Project Cost: 19.39 USD Million
- Funding Agency: GoU, Strategic Partner (Hydromax & DOTT) and AFRI-EXIM bank
- Capacity: 6.6 MW
- Type of Power Plant: Run of River plant with small reservoir concrete Dam
- Dam Height: 7 meters
- Reservoir Active Capacity: 12,000 m3
- Net Head: 112.2 meters
- Design Flow: 6.83 m3/s
- Expected Annual Max Generation: 36.27 GW
Project Status
- Civil and Penstock Works: By the end of July 2023, the Works had progressed to 93.4% for the Civil and Penstock Works contract with the Dam, Intake and River diversion works at 94.2%, Pipe conduit works at 99.7%, Reservoir protection works at 35%, Surge tank, penstock intake and overflow channel at 90.8%, Penstock works at 100%, powerhouse and switch yard at 80.3% and Tail pool and Tail race at 82.2%. The bulk of the outstanding Civil works relate to outstanding works on the reservoir protection works, the power house, the tail pool and tail race, the surge tank and overflow channel and the Dam and Intake Section.
- Electro-Mechanical Works: The Tender for the Electro-Mechanical works was awarded to Flovel Energy Private Limited. They started the manufacture of the EM equipment and several inspections for the completed equipment have been carried out and witnessed by GOPA, UEGCL and the GENMAX team. The installation and erection of the Main Inlet Valves, Spiral Casings, Draft tubes and EoT crane in the powerhouse is currently ongoing.
- Hydro-Mechanical Works: The Tender for Hydro-Mechanical (Gates) works was awarded to Shree Ganesh Industries. All designs and drawings were submitted to TCE and were approved. The embedded parts and gates were fabricated and delivered. The gates and hoists are already on the site with installation works ongoing at the Dam, surge tank and powerhouse, while the embedded parts were installed during the month of December 2022.
- Transmission Lines: The preliminary designs were completed by the project company. Following the construction of a substation in Nebbi, the project company decided to change the transmission line route and evacuate the power to this new substation rather than the Nyagak I substation. The grid interconnection studies for this new route have commenced and the Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) and Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) methodologies have been developed.