KAMPALA (AND) – The Uganda government is to buy 50 megawatts of power from Kenya Electricity Generating Company, a move intended to alleviate the electricity crisis in the country.

The Standard, a Kenyan daily reported Friday that KenGen had registered a surplus in its production and had now agreed to sell some of the power to Uganda, which has a deficit of hundreds of megawatts.

"We are in talks with the Ugandans to supply 50MW of power out of the emergency power because they need the power more than we do," the paper quoted KenGen managing director, Mr Eddy Njoroge, as telling a media briefing in Nairobi on Thursday. "They wanted to have the power from June 1, but we are yet to conclude negotiations on pricing."

Neither the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Mr Daudi Migereko nor the Permanent Secretary, Mr Kabagambe Kaliisa could be reached for a comment by press time as they were reportedly in a meeting. However, the Executive Director of the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), Dr Frank Sebbowa, confirmed the development. ERA is the body mandated to regulate the energy sector and to set electricity prices.

"I am aware that the negotiations are going on but I cannot say much about them because I am not part of them," he said by telephone yesterday.

But in any case the deal should have been completed because the power is needed very urgently." KenGen is the leading electric power generation company in Kenya, producing about 80 percent of electricity consumed in the country. The company utilizes various sources to generate electricity ranging from hydro, geothermal, thermal and wind.

Hydro is the leading source, with an installed capacity of about 700MW. The company has reportedly found it self with excess power capacity following "good rains" that boosted the country's hydropower capacity coupled with the purchased emergency power from Aggreko International, the paper said.

Uganda currently faces a power shortfall of 200mw, which have severely affected production as a result of persistent power rationing. It is a turn of fortunes for Uganda, which has for many years been an exporter of power to her regional neighbors.

The paper said KenGen dams received "enough water" during the period that allowed the country's hydropower system to operate at full capacity, while Uganda did not recover from the regional drought that has cut power output at Uganda's two hydroelectric plants on the River Nile from 380 mw to 135 mw.

The power crisis has forced Uganda to revise its economic growth forecast downwards from 5.8 percent in 2005/06 to 4.9 percent. In his Budget , Finance Minister Dr Ezra Suruma a new Ush100 billion ($57.1 million) Energy Fund to help fight the power crisis that has, together with a prolonged drought, reduced gross domestic product (GDP) growth from 6.6 percent to 5.3 percent. President Yoweri Museveni has promised to take on the energy crisis while fighting corruption.

In the medium term, Government has said it will fast track the construction of the Bujagali power dam in Jinja and another at Karuma on the River Nile in a period of about 42 months. In the short run, the government proposes to install two additional thermal power plants, which would supply 50MW each.