Ministry of Energy and Mining has set an ambitious target to double electricity generation from the current 551 megawatts (MW) by 2030 banking on independent power producers (IPPs) and Malawi-Mozambique (Moma) Power Interconnector project.
Line Minister Jean Mathanga made the pledge yesterday in Mzimba when she inspected the 10MW Biomass Power Plant that Raiply Malawi Limited has installed at its factory in Mzimba and went live on November 17 2025.
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Raiply has become the first IPP to produce 10MW costing $16 million (about K28 billion) from a biomass plant. From the total generation, Raiply is selling 3MW to Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) for the national grid.
Queried on how government plans to double production by 2030 when it failed to achieve the same target by 2025, Mathanga said they are in the process of ironing out a few bottlenecks.
She said: “On IPPs, the challenges faced mostly are to do with the framework. Most of the IPPs that have come in are international. So we have had issues on how they will externalise the proceeds from the sale of power to Escom.
“As a ministry, we have made sure that we revise, we look at that framework to make sure that it is in tandem with what is required by these international investors. We are sealing all other gaps so that we give them confidence to invest.”
Commenting on the Moma project which will allow Malawi to buy and sell power through the Southern African Power Pool, she envisaged that more IPPs will be willing to invest in Malawi because the pool gives them a steady selling vessel.
Mathanga said the government will provide a good environment for the investors in the power sector such as Raiply to thrive and upscale the production from the current 10MW.
She said: “Previously, we used to provide them with 6MW and they have since surrendered that back to Escom. So, it means we have gotten 9MW at the moment from Raiply.
“This is clean energy that is being advocated worldwide. It’s clean and they are making sure that they are putting nothing to waste.”
Raiply Malawi chief executive officer Krishna Das said depending on the viability of the current power project and raw materials, they will in future consider expanding the current generation capacity.
He said: “If given additional land to add to the current 20000 ha, we will start planting and managing them so that we could bring in a few more investments as the raw material is being guaranteed.
“Otherwise existing investment and the plantations that we have, we are trying to balance but it doesn’t have scope for additional investments unless they give us additional land.”
The 10MW Raiply is producing is more than double the 4.5MW Electricity Generation Company of Malawi (Egenco) produces at Wovwe Hydro Power Station in Karonga. When operated on off grid, Wovwe has the capacity to supply power to Karonga and Chitipa districts.
At least 11 IPPs that were projected to add 343.26 megawatts (MW) to the national grid by 2023/24 missed their deadline.
