Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… The handover of Umeme licenses for the sale and distribution of electricity to Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited (UEDCL) has put the country’s energy sector into sharp focus, especially with power resources shifting from private to public hands. Energy Minister, Ruth Nankabirwa said the handover today followed completion of the review of the UEDCL applications by the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA). The handover was based on President Museveni’s earlier decision who directed that all expiring private electricity distribution concessions not be renewed upon their natural expiry. Thus far, five concessions have already been returned to the government.Umeme’s concession expires in 2025. Whereas some Ugandans remain sceptical about the government’s ability to efficiently manage the distribution network, which, Eng. Ziria Tibalwa Wako, the ERA Executive Director, acknowledged that the transition may have questions and uncertainties.Mr Wako has instead promised that a deliberate effort has been made to establish an optimal staffing for the efficient operation and management of the distribution network post- March 2025. The Electricity dilemma President-Museveni (in hat) commissioning the 600MW Karuma Hydropower Plant in September. The power plant is the Uganda’s largest and is set to change economic fortunes of the country/ PPU Photo.For one to understand whether UEDCL will deliver results to Ugandans; let’s first rewind to how the sector has grown over the past 24 years.  Uganda’s generation mix depends heavily on hydropower, which typically accounts for over 80 percent of the country’s electricity. Most additional capacity is also renewable, including several solar installations and thermal power plants running on sugar cane bagasse.  Uganda carried out a comprehensive Power Sector Restructuring and Privatisation Strategy in the late 1990s and early 2000s, under which it unbundled the vertically integrated Uganda Electricity Board in 2001 into three state-owned companies that respectively cover generation, transmission and distribution. The Uganda Electricity Generation Company…