Dark weekend as Egenco under takes maintenance

Electricity users face a long dark weekend as Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) undertakes maintenance works at Nkula A and B hydro-electric power stations in Blantyre District, taking off 135.1 megawatts (MW) from the grid.

Egenco said the rehabilitation works are expected to start early Saturday and be completed Monday.

On the other hand, a load shedding schedule released by Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) shows that consumers will experience a minimum of eight hours on each day.

Egenco said the scope of works will comprise replacement of the Nkula B dislodged intake screens and inspection of main inlet valve [MIV] for machine number four.

Reads the Egenco statement: “The work will require complete shutdown of both Nkula A and Nkula B and lowering the head-pond level to create a safe working environment for engineers, drivers, technicians and welders during inspection and installation of trash screens at the intake.”

Egenco further said the work will require dewatering of the plant’s tunnels.

In an interview yesterday, Egenco spokesperson Moses Gwaza assured that despite the outage of Nkula, electricity generation will continue at Kapichira and Tedzani power stations, as well from available diesel generators to supply power to the grid. 

He said they will also continue to generate power at Wovwe in Karonga, which has a generation capacity of 4.5MW.

Said Gwaza: “As of today, we have available capacity of 342MW, therefore, taking out 135MW would mean that from Egenco alone, 207MW will be available to the national grid for supply.

“The work that we are carrying out will help ensure that Nkula B machines are protected from unwanted foreign bodies such as debris and trash which suffocate machines and damage underwater parts. The maintenance of MIV on machine number 4 will ensure that we are able to operate the machines normally and in case of energy we are able to shut it down to prevent damage.”

Besides Egenco where it gets 95 percent of its power into the national grid, Escom gets the remainder from JCM Solar Power plant and purchases in Zambia and Mozambique.

By press time at 8pm, Escom public relations officer Kitty Chingota had not responded to our questions on how much power it will get from the other sources.

But Consumers Association of Malawi executive director John Kapito decried the situation, saying power outages negatively affect households, hospitals and small scale businesses.

He said the situation is likely to create inconveniences, especially for those who wanted to capitalise on the long weekend for economic gains.

Said Kapito: “We were promised that electricity is in abundance and that there are no more blackouts, now again to have long blackouts, what does it say about their credibility and integrity?

“We suffered, persevered and gave them time, now again? We are tired as consumers because without electricity, there is no life.”

In April 2023, Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola declared an end to the load-shedding that the country had been experiencing.

He told journalists at a press conference that three machines at Kapichira Hydro-Electric Power Station in Chikwawa had been restored after the plant was destroyed by Cyclone Ana in January 2022.

The plant restored 129 megawatts into the national grid.