Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) says the country’s power supply will stabilise by February 2026 after three projects, including the Mozambique- Malawi power interconnector, are commissioned.
In a fresh communique titled ‘Update on 50 Megawatts (MW) and Festive Season Preparedness’, Escom said the interconnector coupled with restoration of the 31MW Tedzani Power Station and the 20MW Kanengo Battery Energy Solar System (Bess) will solve electricity challenges by February 2026.
It said the interconnector which will enable Malawi to tap 50MW from Mozambique, will be commissioned in February 2026 the time Bess project (which targets storing solar power to stabilise supply) will be key to stabilise electricity supply from 2026 going forward.
Reads part of the update: “The most critical of these steps is the interconnector project. We are delighted to confirm that we are now targeting commissioning by February 2026. This revised timeline is a testament to the focused efforts to ensure the highest electricity reliability once the project is commissioned.
“The Minister’s [of Natural Resources Energy and Mining Jean Mathanga] announcement that the Ministry of Finance and the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) are fully aligned for the monthly payment arrangement for the imported power once the project is completed in February 2026 is a tremendous motivation to Escom.”
Malawi reviewed its earlier plan of tapping 120MW from the project, saying it would have cost about $10 million (K17.4 billion) a month but with the 50MW the monthly bill will be about $4.5 million (about K7.8 billion) per month.
In an interview on Tuesday, RBM governor Macdonald Mafuta-Mwale confirmed the bank’s commitment to support Escom’s electricity imports from Mozambique saying electricity is critical in production.
Mafuta-Mwale said: “Escom being a public entity and the fact that electricity is needed for production, the bank is ready to support the project and when the time comes for our support we will come in accordingly.”
Meanwhile, according to Escom, the Electricity Generation Company’s 31MW Tedzani power station which has been off-grid since December 2024 will be fully restored by end December 2025 to enable it to increase its electricity procurement and supply from 2026.
It said apart from the two, the Bess project is critical as the substation will restore and inject 20MW of power into the grid when required providing crucial stability and resilience to manage peak demand fluctuations.
Earlier, Escom acting chief executive officer engineer Sinosi Maliyano said the batteries were imported from China and that when installed the system will store power generated by Independent Power Producers (IPPs) from solar projects, improving supply stability and reliability.
“This is critical because as of now we have over 100 megawatts generated from solar, but for that power to be integrated we need these batteries,” Maliyano said.
Commenting on the Bess project’s potential to impact on electricity supply and IPPs, energy expert and former Escom CEO Kandi Padambo said the critical element the Bess project brings is to store electricity because it can stabilise the grid.
“The battery is critical because it will ensure that the power is stored and be used when the solar electricity generation is affected by weather factors, for instance.
“That ensures grid stability and for that reason it is an important project for the country,” Padambo said.
The $16 million Bess project, funded by the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (Geapp), started in November 2024 and expected to be commissioned in February 2026.
The power interconnector is one of the projects expected to improve the local power shortage. Malawi has missed its target of hitting 1 000MW power supply by end 2025.
