Dark start to New Year as 84.8MW is off the grid
ENERGY
Malawians have started the New Year 2025 on a gloomy note with increased power rationing after technical chal lenges at Kapichira and Nkula B hydro power stations took out 84.8 megawatts (MW) from the national grid.
The development has left the grid with 305.7MW from hydro power plants.
In a s t a t emen t o n Tuesday evening, Electricity Gen er a t i o n Company (Egenco) Limited said two units at Kapichira, with a combined generation capacity of 64.8MW and one unit at Nkula B which produces 20MW, are not operational due to turbine mechanical failures.
Reads the statement : “Currently, two units at Kapichira, and one unit at Nkula B are not operational due to turbine mechanical system failures. As a result, Kapichira is operating at 50 percent of its installed capacity while Nkula B is at 80 percent capacity.
“Our eng i n e e r s a re diligently working around the clock to resolve these chal lenges. One unit at Kapichira is expected to be back online within the next 10 days, with the second unit within 25 days. The unit at Nkula B will take at least five days.”
Station has four machines with a combined generation capacity of 129.6MW, each producing 32.4 MW. On the other hand, Nkula B has five machines, each rated 20MW.
Egenco said the works at Kapichira will include repairing and replacing turbine underwater parts.
The company further said that to mitigate the impact of this outage, it will utilise all available generators to supplement the available hydro capacity.
Last week, Egenco chief executive officer Maxon Chitawo told stakeholders in Lilongwe that it has in place backup power generators with about 40MW capacity in the event of damage to one of the existing stations owing to the ongoing rainy season.
He said: “Our plan is that we should not have power blackouts during the rainfall season and in the case that something has happened, we should be able to respond quickly.
“ H o w e v e r , t h e effectiveness of our plan h i n g e s o n e n h a n c e d monito r i ng and ear l y warning systems for potential risks, robust emergency r e s p o n s e p r o t o c o l s , coordinated communication and col laboration with stakeholders.”
Meanwhile, in its load shedding schedule for December 30 2024 to January 4 2025, Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) said the power rationing was prompted by power supply deficit due to increased demand and insufficient capacity to cover it.
Reads the Escom statement in part: “Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi [Escom] Limited will implement load-shedding from Monday, 30th December 2024, to Saturday, 4th January 2025 due to a power supply deficit as a result of increased demand and insufficient capacity to cover it.
“Note: Solar plant s c o n t r i b u t e t owa r d s availability of electricity. Despite weather forecasts, random fluctuations in intensity of sunshine may af fect solar power production, leading to load shedding outside this programme.”
Under the load shedding schedule, customers are divided in six groups with three groups experiencing at least three hours of blackout per day.
Since August 2024, Escom had been implementing load shedding programme whereby each group was experiencing two hours of power outage per week.
In a separate statement, Escom argued that the blackouts are limited to two hours each day, disputing reports that it plans to extend the blackouts to 11 hours per day.
Egenco has total instal led generation capacity of 441.95MW, with 390.55MW from hydro power plants and 51.4MW from standby diesel power plants.
Malawi Government planned to generate 1 000MW of power by 2025 due to reforms which it said had opened up opportunities for independent power producers. However, the target was missed due to poor or delayed response from potential investors in the power sector.
