Power Losses - Paying through our noses

UMEME made its case to the public and ERA. Their customer base grew to over 400,000 in the last 5 years. The distribution losses are down to about 30% from about 40%. They also want to invest another US$35mil in grid expansion to add more clients. they say generation and transmission losses take 70% of all losses. HENCE we must pay more.

We are paying for the losses incurred in generation, transmission and distribution. It is so unfair for a company to make someone pay for inefficiencies on it's own part. UEGCL and UETCL should not charge us for power they never generated/supplied!

There was also the issue of tampered meters - the ones that run faster than the electricity consumed. How was that addressed? No one has ever come to my home to reduce the meter rotational speed.

In a twist in the tale the government is giving out free energy saver bulbs to increase energy efficiency in households. I hereby categorically state that  I don't need another bulb from UMEME or government. I much rather the government AND UMEME and ESKOM and all those power producers reduced the losses and the already high tariff. 

The blame game continues:

Blame the oil prices. Blame the transmission and generation losses. Blame the rising dollar rate, Blame the opposition who, allegedly sabotaged the Bujagali power project... Blame it on something, anything.

Comments:

I have no control on how power is generated at Jinja or Namanve for that matter. whether we invest more in High Speed Diesel and Heavy Fuel Oil Thermal Generators or build 10 new hydro power dams and a few nuclear power plants is purely a government decision. and this holds true to Uganda's scenario

Paying for losses that I did not cause is cruel. It is theft at a whole new level. It is like passive smoking.

Giving us energy savers while the other players are heaping their sloppiness on us is an insult. Talk about giving a dog a bone!! To expect us to conserve the poor quality service should be viewed as a criminal offense.

The idea of expanding the grid to reach more customers is insane. You can't provide the ones you have with a decent service, why add to the number of your disgruntled customers?

Whether oil prices and dollar rates have gone up should be a negotiation between power companies and the government. Revising our power tariffs upward is a deliberate attempt to cripple the businesses and livelihoods of the average Ugandan. In response, charcoal and firewood use is bound to increase, to the detriment of our forests and environment.  Soon we might as well hand them back the wires and meters and light fireplaces in our compounds. I am just may be heading for the tadooba, to yield to the regression that we are being forced into. But not yet... I will actually buy that expensive solar PV.

We've been hit by a smooth criminal

21 questions: SIM card registration

Dear telecom fraternity,

I hear the communication commission wants to you get all our simcards registered. I've heard ads on the radio saying my simcard will become my address. So on this matter, I have 21 Questions I hope you can help me answer.

21 QUESTIONS
1. Is this true? I mean the part of my sim card becoming my address... scary!
2. Will you actually be able to send my relatives from Kabulasoke to my slum home in Nkere Zone by a mere touch of a button?
3. Is there a possibility that you are planning to advertise my location to all and sundry as long they have my number? and might this include all my stalkers, over zealous fans, weirdos, and the deranged alike?

ADs
4a. How come there are no fancy ads on this? Only one of you is doing a hell of a job of making me queasy about registering... I guess hence these questions.
4b. How come you afford money for all the other ads and simply send me a text to say it is good for me to register? For a record, I don't see the good in registering. One of you at least has the good sense of giving land to some puny lucky winners but the rest of the lot simply say I should walk to the kiosk hand in my details and all will be well. What a really hear is :" Go and sell your soul and all will be well"

Benefits:
5. Where are the  real benefits? Will there be no dropped calls the moment I register?
5b. Will the signal quality improve? Will I get a faster connection?

6. Will the calls be cheaper? Will the interconnection fees be removed for the registered?
7. Will I get faster response from police when in need of their services?
8. Will this bring automatic access to ambulance to my area?
9. Is there any benefit to the user for this new registration drive, anything at all?

Costs
Soon we shall be going to be counted in the national census, from the little bird I heard, it looks like that will also be this year
10. why not simply register  the simcard then?
11. Who pays for the passport photo I must deliver to the registration desk? Most passport photo booths give you 3 instead of 1 and if you are in Kampala that would be leave your wallet 10,000 shillings  lighter.
12. What If I don't have a valid ID? Those are rare in our slums. We all hoped to get IDs from the national ID efforts. Look where that has left us.
13. Did someone say passport? instead of IDs What is that?

Convenience / Efficiency/ forward thinking:
14. Could the network provider please install cameras at their kiosks and take a digital photo?
15. In this day and age should we still be doing paper registration?
16. Why not proper biometrics instead of the tedium of filling registration forms from a couple of million simcards across the country?
17. Have you or the commission taken into account the environmental impact of all that paper work?
18. Are you trying to create more jobs for data entrants plowing through all those pages of data?

Legal:
19. Is it possible that my data may get lost or find its way into the wrong hands?
20.I would like to sign an NDA with the service provider before I register lest my data end up in the wrong hands accidentally. Is that possible?
21. How do we verify that our data is safe?

Origins:
21a. How did we get here? fist mass distribution of almost free simcards and then later a costly registration!
21b. Must we firefight everything? What happened to our planning?

Conclusions:
I see many carts ahead of horses. And we maybe called upon to do biometrics registration in 3-5 years when someone figures it is a better method. Our biodata is valuable, no, it's actually portent. Kindly keep it safe for all our sakes.

the New G -Klasse What Will Brabus Do?

BBC top gear says there's a new G63 from the chaps at AB Motorfabriken i Göteborg (aka AMG) replacing the G55...

The Promises:

1. 13% more efficient. 
2. Better acceleration. 
3. Better deceleration? more horses. 
4. Better fuel economy. 
5. Better suspension? 
6. Better handling?

Brabus, your move...

for us the Brabus in diehards this presents an opportunity and a challenge! We can't wait for the finest tuner will do to this new G-Wagen. Our minds are coming up with all sorts of imegary on what could come out from Brabus in response. 

I for one I ask: 

1. Can we expect some more improvements on that ego supercharging Widestar (as if the G55 from AMG was not fuelling owner's egos enough)? 
2. Will you remove the 800bhp limit so that we hit the 1000 horses mark unhindered? 
3. A G1000 up from the G800?... mama nyabo.
4. The Overfinch chaps at Leeds are churning out a limtied edition of Range rover called Range Rover Obsidian - Can we expect something in the same rank or higher rank?

Alien

I'm an alien.... a Ugandan in  Norway.

KL 535

In an hour I'll be in the air... leaving these familiar grounds, aiming for higher grounds.

I can't wait to see what awaits me, yet I long for what I've left behind... those that I've left back.