The Achwa project was developed in the Pader district of Uganda.
The scope of the project is the construction of two run-of-the-river hydroelectric power plants along the Achwa river called Achwa1 and Achwa2.
The main works that make up the plants are:
- Nr. 2 weirs: with rubber dam (Achwa2) and radial gates (Achwa1)
- Nr. 2 intakes
- Nr. 2 Open-air channel of 100 m3/s 4 km long, by pass and Forebay
- Nr. 4 Penstocks in steel with a maximum diameter of 2950 mm for each project
- Nr. 2 Powerhouse where are located nr. 4 Francis turbines with horizontal axis.
The Project also includes the construction of the following structures:
- A system of access roads and connecting service roads
- An T-Line from Achwa 1 to Achwa 2 where is located the main sub-station
In order to optimize and reduce the construction period as much as possible, the 2 plants were built one after the other with one year of overlap, with HPP2 built first, followed by HPP1.
The plants are run-of-the-river plants and therefore they don’t cause any alteration of the available flow rates as the morphology and topography of the sites do not allow the creation of reservoirs of considerable volumetric capacity. HPP1 and HPP2 are located on the Achwa River about 19 km northwest of the bridge on the Gulu-Kitgum road.
The total installed power of the plants is 83 MW (HPP2 42MW, HPP1 41MW).
Achwa 2 entered service in 2019 and Achwa 1 entered service in 2021.
