Be proactive, Msaka tells Egenco officials
Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining Bright Msaka has advised newly-formed Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) management to be proactive and develop strategies to prevent emerging problems.
The minister said this after touring Tedzani Hydropower Station on Friday to see operations of the company for the first time since the unbundling of the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom).
He said Egenco should take a different approach towards work and develop strategies to ensure that the current electricity supply shortages are lessened.
“We have seen that the dam at pond is silted, a situation which calls for immediate action. The company cannot continue to complain about nature but rather manage, that implores the management to ensure that their pond is dredged and deep enough to generate more power.
“It is unfortunate that we wait for a problem to come and address it, but this has only resulted in pressure; hence, failing to address the problem on time. We have agreed that by June 1 the dredging process should be done,” he said.
Msaka also advised Egenco officials to fix faulty machines if the company is to be a profitable entity by producing adequate power to supply to the nation.
“Egenco has over 350.1 megawatts (MW) installed capacity but some machines are currently not working.
“As an independent power producer, the company cannot leave machines not working because it is these machines that would help them produce more power and sell more,” he said.
Egenco chief executive officer William Liabunya said the company plans to dredge the dam and has lined up a number of rehabilitation programmes to reclaim the faulty machines and also to add some capacity to improve electricity generation.
“We have set aside over K4 billion to be used to dredge the dam with hope that this will be a lasting solution to siltation as it will address river diversion.
“There are some streams that are coming straight to the dam and ultimately increasing silt. We believe this will be a lasting solution to this problem. We are also looking at getting a permanent dredger for the pond,” he said.
On the machines, Liabunya said they will be modernised and updated by an additional 12MW.
He said Tedzani III will also be undergoing rehabilitation this year where it is expected to have an additional 10MW after the project and continue these programmes to all stations of Nkula B, Tedzani I and II and Kapichira I.
