The Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) says the 30 megawatts (MW) generators it initially indicated would arrive in the country from China in early February will now be here in March and April.
In an interview yesterday, Egenco spokesperson Moses Gwaza said generators for Mapanga in Blantyre were shipped on January 20 and will arrive on March 5 while those for Kanengo in Lilongwe would be dispatched from China on April 4.
This is the third time Egenco is giving different dates on the expected arrival of the gensets. Last November, Egenco told The Nation that the 30MW gensets would arrive by mid-December 2017 with installation carried out before the end of 2017.
In the same month, Egenco said it would airlift gensets to speed up the process of generating power from diesel-powered generators. Again, this did not happen.
Last month, Egenco said it would no longer airlift generators from China as earlier communicated because using that mode of transport was expensive, as it would cost half the price for purchasing the equipment.
Yesterday, Gwaza said they were yet to arrive in the country.
He said: “The generators for Mapanga were shipped on January 20 2018. We expect that they will arrive on March 5. Commissioning is expected from March 30 to end April 2018.”
Of the 36 MW gensets Egenco plans to install, only three generators, contributing six MW to the national grid, planted in Mzuzu have gone live.
Government is also doing feasibility studies at Fufu on South Rukuru River with a potential capacity of 120MW, Mpatamanga Gorge with a capacity of 300MW, Kholombidzo Falls with a capacity of 150MW, Chimugonda with a capacity of 60MW and Kam’mwamba thermal powered plant with a potential capacity of 300MW.
