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Home Business Business News

Mera hits at IPPs

by Grace Phiri
22/05/2019
in Business News, Front Page
3 min read
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Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) has threatened to revoke licences for independent power producers (IPPs) who fail to roll out during their specified period, saying the delay may affect further investments in the energy sector.

Mera chief executive officer Collins Magalasi said in an interview that failing to roll out in time could either prolong reliance on diesel-powered electricity or affect government policy of getting rid of blackouts by 2020.

“Aggreko generators were given two years after which they were supposed to pack and go so that we can accommodate IPPs by January 2021. This means that prices of electricity could go down as well but IPPs are yet to roll out despite signing power purchase agreements [PPAs].

IPPs will feed their power into the national power grid

“In the event that Aggreko goes, the country could be forced to reduce electricity supply. So, having IPPs not rolling out is challenging government policy of attaining 2.1 gigawatts of electricity by 2024 which could also necessitate some more investors like those in mining to be affected as their operations depend much on electricity,” he said.

Magalasi said it is for this reason that going forward, Mera is enclosing a condition in the PPAs in which IPPs will have six months from the day of signing the agreement to roll out or have their licences revoked to pave the way for other investors.

Mera figures indicate that to date, 20 PPAs have been signed in the areas of hydro, solar, wind and diesel power generation.

Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) chief executive officer Allexon Chiwaya said the country should have had one of IPPs operating by end of December last year, but none of them have done so and have pushed their roll out time to November this year.

He said their roadmap was to have IPPs operational by 2021, but there is a window shift of six months.

One of the IPPs, JCM Power, whose 60 megawatts (MW) Salima solar electricity project valued at $60 million is bound to miss its June deadline due to water logged soil on the project site, says the project should be operational between now and the end of the year.

The firm’s country director Phylip Leferink admitted in an interview that they will miss the June deadline, saying his firm informed the government through the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining.

He said: “We are currently clearing and compacting the land in preparation for the installation of the solar panels. We are expecting containers of solar panels shipped from China to start arriving in the country this week. Project implementation took a while because the land was water logged to the effect that our vehicles could not reach the project site.”

Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining spokesperson  Sangwani Phiri said the firm has been updating government on the delays and understood the water logged situation at the project site.

Energy expert Grain Malunga, who is also former minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, said in an interview that once produced, the solar power will be consumed directly through the national grid.

“If these solar projects have storage systems then it will help a lot because during the day we will use solar power and at night we will be using installed capacity,” he said.

The projects are expected to fit into the national power grid because of power infrastructure built under the $350.7 million (about K257 billion) energy compact from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

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Early sporadic results coming after mid-night today show that regional strongholds for DPP and MCP held firmly, but new kid on the block UTM Party appeared to ingratiate itself in the Central and Northern Regions while UDF showed support erosion in what used to be its eastern region bedroom.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) appeared to maintain its grip on the so-called Lhomwe Belt of Mulanje, Thyolo, Phalombe and Chiradzulu while running strongly in the Eastern Region, especially in Machinga.
Malawi Congress Party (MCP) seemed to have maintained its grip on its traditional stronghold—the Central Region—but showed little signs of expanding its electoral map to the South, Eastern and Northern regions of the country despite alliances with Joyce Banda’s People’s Party (PP) and Khumbo Kachali’s Freedom Party.
However, MCP posted strong results in the sporadic results that came out of the Lower Shire district of Chikwawa, suggesting that the so-called Sidik Mia factor could be rubbing off the oldest party positively having picked Mia as the party’s running mate.
UTM Party was running strongly in the Northern Region, especially in Rumphi and Karonga, as it was neck-in-neck with DPP while remaining competitive in the Central, Eastern and Southern regions. 
But with results drip-dropping, those who voted in yesterday’s tripartite elections will have to wait longer for a more definitive patterns to emerge as Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) said it will only publish verified results.
Counting of the votes started soon after the 5 002 polling stations closed at 6pm or thereabouts, except Kanyenjere polling station in Chitipa Central Constituency which closed at 10.25 pm to compensate for delayed opening due to logistical hiccups and ensure that voters were given the legal 12-hour voting duration.
By midnight, the results were not clearly shaping as only those from streams—designated lines at a polling station— were trickling in. Based on the pace, the picture of the results at constituency or district level in all the three elections—presidential, parliamentary and local government—should start emerging later today.
Briefing the media at the National Tally Centre in Blantyre at around 10.30pm, MEC chairperson Jane Ansah stressed that the electoral body will only post results that are verified by auditors and signed for by stakeholders, including political party representatives.
Unlike in past elections, this year MEC is counting the streams at polling stations simultaneously. Previously, the votes from streams at a station were counted successively.
Earlier MEC had said voting in all 5 002 polling centres went on well.

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