Units 81 to 150 cost less than units 16 to 80
This is not a typing mistake, and it is the least-known fact on this page. The domestic schedule charges units 16–80 at Shs 919.69 all-in, then drops to Shs 486.16 for units 81–150 — the cooking tariff — before going back to Shs 919.69 above 150.
It is deliberate policy: the cheap step exists to put electric cooking below charcoal. It matters more here than in most places. Kasese town sits between two national parks, the charcoal and firewood that cook most meals here come off the same slopes whose clearing local reporting blames for making the Nyamwamba's floods worse, and a household that already uses 80 units a month reaches the cheap step as soon as it starts cooking on electricity.
Kasese makes power on the rivers that flood it
Kasese is one of the few towns in Uganda that generates electricity and still buys it back at the national price. Four small hydro stations sit on the rivers above town — Bugoye on the Mubuku, Mubuku I, which Kilembe Mines built for the copper works, Mubuku III, and Nyamwamba I up at Kilembe village — and all of them feed the national grid at Nkenda substation, about 10 km north of town.
Nyamwamba I is the one that says most about this place. Flooding of its construction site forced a redesign that cut it from a planned 14 MW to 9.2 MW, so even the power station lost ground to the river. None of it earns a Kasese household a discount: the tariff is set nationally, and what you pay is what the rest of the country pays.
Why a small token can come back with almost nothing
UEDCL takes the service charge — Shs 3,360 plus VAT, so Shs 3,964.80 — once every 30 days, in full, off your first purchase in that period. UEDCL puts it plainly on its own prepayment page: make several purchases inside 30 days and "he earns discounted units once, and service fee is levied once".
So a Shs 5,000 token bought first in the month leaves about Shs 1,035 for electricity — on the ordinary step, barely more than one unit — and a Shs 4,000 one leaves almost nothing at all. The same Shs 5,000 bought second in the month, with the charge already paid, buys about five and a half units. The charge is not avoidable, but knowing when it falls is: if you are buying in small amounts, the first purchase of each 30 days is the one that will look wrong.
When your area is switched off on purpose
Kasese town is fed from Nkenda substation on a 33 kV line, and UEDCL is rebuilding that section under a project it calls the Nkenda–Ishaka Capacity and Reliability Improvement. Its monthly planned-shutdown schedule names Kasese streets and wards individually — in October 2026 that included Kirembe Road, Kasese Town, Base Camp, Temagalo, Road Barrier, Kamayiba, Acholi Quarters, Go Down, Katadooba, Railway, Mwaro, Kigoro, Rukoki, Nyakasanga, Muhokya, Kikorongo and the Bwera–Mpondwe area.
If your power went off on a weekday and came back the same day, a planned shutdown is the likely reason, and it is worth checking the schedule before reporting a fault. The schedule gives dates but no times of day, and UEDCL publishes a fresh one each month.
If you lose a token before you enter it
On MTN you can get it back yourself: dial *165#, then 4 for Payments, then 1 for Utilities, then 2 for UEDCL, then "Get UEDCL last token".
UEDCL says the same self-help is not yet available on Airtel. For that, call the toll-free line on 0800 203 088.
UEDCL, not Umeme — and "Light", not Yaka
Umeme's twenty-year distribution concession ended on 31 March 2025, and UEDCL, the state-owned distributor, took over the network, the meters and the accounts. UEDCL has since renamed the prepaid product from Yaka to Light — ERA's own tariff schedule now writes "prepaid system (Light)" — but almost everybody still says Yaka, and the meters themselves did not change.
If you are calling an Umeme number or reading an Umeme rate, it is out of date.
What this page is not
It is arithmetic on ERA's published schedule. It is not your account, it cannot see your meter, and it does not know whether your household passes the lifeline test. Where a figure here and a figure from UEDCL disagree, UEDCL's is the one that governs what you owe — but a difference you can name and show a slip for is a much better starting point than a feeling that something is wrong.