Power generation restored—Egenco
Electricity Generation Company (Malawi) Limited (Egenco) says it has concluded maintenance works at Nkula A and B hydro-electric power stations in Blantyre District, 18 hours ahead of schedule.
Egenco announced on Thursday that from Saturday to Monday afternoon, it would undertake maintenance works at the two power stations effectively taking off 135.1 megawatts (MW) from the national grid.
This resulted in power load shedding of up to eight hours in some parts of the country.
But in its update yesterday, Egenco said the rehabilitation works have been completed and power restored nationwide.
The company said its engineers found a huge tree that was stuck under the main inlet valve, making it impossible for its plants to operate.
Reads the update in part: “Nkula B dislodged intake screens have been replaced successfully. Similarly, the inspection of the main inlet valve [MIV] for machine number four was successful and led to the discovery of a huge tree that was stuck under the MIV, making it impossible to operate. The tree has since been removed successfully.
“As at 00:15hrs [Monday], all machines at both stations were back online and normalisation was complete. We thank all our stakeholders and the public for your understanding and patience during this period.”
Egenco said the scope of works comprised replacement of the Nkula B dislodged intake screens and inspection of main inlet valve [MIV] for machine number four.
Earlier, Egenco spokesperson Moses Gwaza said the works would help to ensure that Nkula B machines are protected from unwanted foreign bodies such as debris and trash which suffocate machines and damage underwater parts.
Besides Egenco, where it gets 95 percent of its power into the national grid, Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) gets the remainder from JCM Solar Power plant and purchases in Zambia and Mozambique.
Escom spokesperson Kitty Chingota said Malawi has a total installed capacity of 554.24MW of which 101MW is from solar.
“Solar power is added to the grid depending on the hydro power that is available,” she said.
In April 2023, Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola declared an end to the load-shedding that the country had been experiencing.
He told journalists at a press conference that three machines at Kapichira Hydro-Electric Power Station in Chikwawa had been restored after the plant was destroyed by Cyclone Ana in January 2022.
The plant restored 129MW into the national grid.
