Govt touts efforts for sustainable power generation

Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining Bintony Kutsaira says government is embracing efforts that will help to achieve sustainable power supply and generation.

He said this on Tuesday during a visit to Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) diesel-powered generators at Mapanga in Blantyre and weed management plant at Kamuzu Barrage in Liwonde, Machinga.

The two establishments are being touted to have improved generation output.

The weed management plant increase water supply and controls debris on Shire River, where 95 percent of hydro-power is produced and the generators have added 20 megawatts (MW) to the national power grid.

In an interview, Kutsaira said electricity is critical for steady growth of the country’s economy.

“These two projects complement our efforts to increase power supply as the latest generators run for nine hours a day.

“We mandated Egenco to use any means necessary to generate power,” he said.

Kutsaira said government has lined up several long-term projects to address power deficit.

“Next month [August], we will start buying 80MW from Zambia at a cost of $30 million [about K23 billion],” he said.

In his remarks, Egenco chief executive officer William Liabunya said the modern equipment at Kamuzu Barrage has improved power generation and supply.

“We produce power without any interruption as the barrage has new and big automated gates that have eradicated human error,” he said.