Mera talks additional 141MW to grid
Malawi is expected to add 141 megawatts (MW) to the national grid by end of this year.
Updating the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament (PAC) on Tuesday in Lilongwe on efforts to improve the electricity situation in the country, Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) chief executive officer Henry Kachaje said the Serengeti Solar Power project in Nkhotakota will be ready by end of January this year.
He said it will add 21MW to the national grid while another 120MW is expected from the Malawi-Mozambique Interconnector by December end.
Kachaje said: “We can say with certainty that there is hope that if the Malawi-Mozambique Interconnector project comes into play by the end of this year, the country will have access to at least 120MW. Government of Malawi has had negotiations with Mozambique to see that the project is sped up and delivered within time.
“Initially, the negotiated power was 50MW under this interconnecter, there are now new negotiations and the Government of Mozambique has assured us they will consider us having at least an additional of 70MW that will add to the national grid at least 120MW.”
The Mera CEO said that the additional power will help reduce power challenges in the country.
Currently, Malawi has a demand of 618MW against a total generation capacity of 528MW.
The country lost 129.6MW in January 2022 after Cyclone Ana damaged Kapichira Hydro Power plant, forcing Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) to ration power.
Businesses and other activities have been heavily affected due to daily long loadshedding hours.
On his part, Mera director of electricity and renewable energy Patrick Kadewa said efforts to increase electricity generation were also affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, independent power producers (IPPs) were unable to carry out projects when the world shutdown due to the pandemic.
“The country developed a roadmap to increase electricity generation and by now, the blackouts should have been addressed,” he said.
However, Kadewa said Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) is working on restoring 50 percent of the power lost at Kapichira by February this year.
PAC chairperson Mark Botomani said reliable electricity will help attract investors.
In an interview yesterday, Serengeti Energy country director Patrick Silungwe confirmed that the solar power project, known as Nkhotakota 1, will be commissioned end January 2023.
“The power plant should have been ready by December end but subcontractors went on holiday, for the festive season, to their respective countries as such some works such as testing of equipment have been affected,” he said.
Initially, the plant would have been ready in September last year but Covid-19 impact made it difficult to source some equipment from China. Serengeti Energy also plans to construct another solar power plant, Nkhotakota II, with a capacity of 17MW.
