Engineer Richard Ebong, the Manager Legal Metrology at the Uganda National Bereau of Standards( UNBS) has urged all stakeholders in the renewable energy sector to take keen interest and be part of the standardization of the energy sector
Ebong who was making his presentation at the Africana Hotel this week during a breakfast meeting around collaboration with UNBS in standards on renewable energy organized by the Ecological Christian Organization in partnership with WWF Uganda where he noted that the only way to achieve 100% renewable energy transition was if the sector developed standards that aim at improving and selling their products through inclusiveness for all.
“It’s very key that stakeholders always take keen interest in developming standands and understand the terms so as influence and inform decisions for the betterment of your businessand making your prduct competitive,” Ebong noted
Adding that a stardand is always as good as those people who sit on the table to discuss and that incases where stakeholders are not involved then there is always a likelyhood of not benefiting the intended people
According to Ebong this sounded like a good timing specially that some renewable energies such as biomass were depreciating and not sustainable.
He recalls that with Uganda registering her record water levels by L. Victoria in 2005/2007 leading to the worst ever power black-outs, this was awake up call for the standard developers to rethink on the energy sustainability
“Apart from the low water levels , many parts of Northern Uganda were affected by wars from the lord Resistance Army coupled by the need to improve on public health due to a lot of health complications derived from the energy access,” Ebong said
Putting emphasis on the ever increasing population and demand that calls for the need to improve the livelihood from a peasantry to a prosperous counrty reflecting on renewable energy as the main stream of energy but also abiding to the African Agenda 2063 which is a strategic framework for the inclusive role and sustainable development that requires to optimise the use of Africa resources for Africa
He noted however, one should always keep in the know of these policies as these keep on changing to suit the desired impact as this will help them ensure that they were still operating with in the law
For instance Ebong notes that with Support by the GIZ they designed the Standard for charcoal Briquettes and Energy Electrical Stoves that enable to improve on cooking however they were now working on revising their standards to cater for other renewable energies
While UNBS remains a none profit organisation , Ebong adds that it there are a lot of resources used during the development of such standards since they are copy right documents and thus require a little money to access them though the pricing always depends on the technicality of the standardisation
These are clearly monitored and incase of an error the ones that developed rectifiedand those that bought the standards updated
Michael Ahimbisibwe the Acting Principal Energy office noted that the government was looking forward to a clean cooking energy policy and that ministry of Energy and Mineral Development was currently working on a project dubbed the Electricity Access Channel which will envolve a lot of standadization calling upon all stakeholders to actively particate in the development of these standards so that no one is left behind
UNBS remains the only Statutory Body that is mandated in the The standardadisation of products in Uganda which involves processes including amongothers Auding, testing, and certification
