Mera calls for diversified investment in power sector

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Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) has urged members of Parliament to ensure that State-owned companies in the power sector are properly supported.

Mera chief executive officer (CEO) Henry Kachaje said this in Lilongwe on Thursday when he appeared before the joint parliamentary committees of Natural Resources and Climate Change, Public Accounts, Legal Affairs and Trade and Industry.

He said the country should not depend on the independent power producers (IPPs) when it comes to investments and power generation.

Said Kachaje: “We need to support the State-owned institutions that are mandated to generate power. Power is a security issue and is an enabler in the whole economic framework.

“We need a balance between what we call the renewable energy and the base lot. At the moment, almost all the independent power producers are producing the renewable source of energy which is solar.”

He said solar is a good source of energy but it requires a stable base which at the moment is being generated by the hydro generation plants managed by the Electricity Generation Company (Egenco).

The joint parliamentary committee chairperson Simplex Chithyola Banda agreed with Kachaje that there is need to ensure that government safeguard, the power sector by having its own institutions generating more and reliable power.

He said: “Electricity is a strategic commodity and there is need to promote the State-owned companies.

“If you have State institutions in electricity generation, transmission and distribution, you can be fully assured of availability of power.”

Malawi is currently facing an acute power deficit, subjecting households and firms to eight-hour-plus load-shedding daily following the damage to Kapichira Hydro Power Station in January this year caused by Tropical Storm Ana. The damage took off the grid 130 megawatts (MW).

State-owned Egenco is producing about 220MW while independent power producer JCM Power is generating at least 60MW from solar.

The output is against an estimated demand of 600MW, according to the 2021 Malawi Government Annual Economic Report.

During the 2020 Presidential Election, President Lazarus Chakwera promised to add 1 000MW to the national grid from various sources by 2025.