Equipment order for Alstom Hydro

Alstom Hydro has been awarded a contract to supply hydro and electro-mechanical equipment worth approximately €160m for the new 255MW Bujagali hydroelectric power plant on the Nile river, Uganda.

Under the turnkey contract signed with Italy’s Salini Hydro, Alstom Hydro will provide five turbine-generator units, control and protection systems and balance of plant. Manufacturing will be shared among the group’s facilities in France, Switzerland and India.

The Bujagali run-of-river scheme will reuse the water released from two existing upstream hydro plants, Nalubaale (180MW) and Kiira (200MW), which are currently the country’s only significant electricity generating facilities.

Once commissioned, Bujagali is expected to relieve what Alstom describes as Uganda’s acute power shortage.

The project is a public-private partnership between the government of Uganda, state-owned transmission company UETCL, and Bujagali Energy, a consortium of private sponsors.

Financial institutions including the World Bank, the European Development Bank and the African Development Bank back the project, which is scheduled for completion in 2011.