Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) says an increase in reported electricity faults averaging 1 500 per day nationwide has in recent weeks overwhelmed the parastatal, compromising efficiency in response time.
Escom chief public relations and communications officer Pilirani Phiri observed in a written response that the current fault levels are significantly higher than what is normally experienced during the dry season.
He attributed the increase to fallen electricity poles, vandalism of infrastructure, equipment failure and adverse weather conditions.
Phiri said Escom deployed technical teams across the country, but the volume of faults reported simultaneously often leads to delays in restoring power.
He said: “Escom has technical teams deployed across the country. However, the increasing number of faults, particularly those linked to vandalism and fallen equipment, sometimes stretches available resources, affecting response times.
“Nationwide, Escom receives an average of 1 500 electricity faults per day especially now during rainy season due to stormy weather.”
Phiri also lamented cases where some customers attempt to fix power problems on their own by engaging private electricians, warning that the practice is illegal and poses safety risks.
The impact of frequent electricity faults is being felt most acutely in critical institutions such as hospitals. The situation worsened in Lilongwe and other parts of the Central Region where some customers had to wait for at least seven days to have their reported faults attended to.
At Chikwawa District Hospital, electricity interruptions have become an almost daily occurrence.
In an interview yesterday, Chikwawa District Hospital administrator Hope Moyo said persistent power outages and low voltage from a transformer shared with surrounding communities have affected essential services, including oxygen production and blood storage.
“We requested for independent electricity line because the line we currently share with the communities here is giving us problems. As we are speaking, we had another power outage this [yesterday] morning,” he said.
Moyo further observed that relying on generators is not a sustainable solution due to the high cost of diesel, adding that producing and purifying oxygen alone consumes about 250 litres of diesel.
Malawi Health Equity Network executive director George Jobe said the prolonged power outages put the lives of patients at risk. He noted that in most hospitals, there are some critical sections which are dependent on electricity.
“Behind loss of power there would be injuries, death and also frustrations amongst healthcare workers,” he said.
In a separate interview, Consumers Association of Malawi executive director John Kapito said the frequent electricity faults are eroding public confidence in Escom and imposing financial losses on households. He said prolonged outages have led to food rotting in refrigerators and disrupted daily life.
“It is frustrating to continue seeing these electricity faults. We pay a lot of money in electricity tariffs, but they [Escom] cannot deliver to the consumers’ expectation, which is painful for consumers,” he said.
During the rainy season, Escom often struggles with steady power supply due to factors such as damages to transmission infrastructure. Flooding and other extreme weather factors have also previously caused damage to generation equipment belonging to Electricity Generation Company of Malawi (Egenco).
Currently, Malawi has a total installed capacity of 554.24 megawatts (MW) comprising 401.8MW from hydro generated by Egenco, 51.4MW from diesel power generation and 101MW from solar sources, according to Escom.
