Power woes’ end in sight?
If an update from Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) Limited that electricity production is now at full capacity is anything to go by, Malawians can hope for an end to power woes.
Egenco chief executive officer William Liabunya, in an interview on Wednesday, said the company is now generating an average of 254 megawatts (MW) from all hydro power stations.
This production is in sharp contrast to the average 164MW from the company was producing before the rehabilitation of all the machines, a situation that forced Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) to extend hours of power rationing.
In a written response last evening, Escom public relations manager Kitty Chingota said the move is a step towards achieving the pre-Cyclone Freddy status when the utility had reduced loadshedding for industrial customers.
“We had increased loadshedding to include industrial customers and, therefore, with 205MW available now, we can reduce loadshedding on industrial customers,”she said.
Liabunya said Egenco was now able to make available at least 205 MW to Escom.
“Usually, at peak they get about 205 megawatts, but Monday, the peak was at 204MW because one megawatt is for system spinning reserve,” he said.
In a statement issued earlier on Wednesday, Egenco indicated that as of March 28 2023, they had stabilised their power generation system with machines at both Nkula and Tedzani hydro power stations working at full capacity.
The company further said it had difficulties to run Tedzani Ill and Nkula A machines because of excess trash, debris, silt and rocks which choked the water intakes following the impact of Tropical Cyclone Freddy.
Reads the Egenco statement in part: “Additionally, we had one machine at Tedzani I and II that was not available due to a problem with transformer jumpers. However, we can now confirm that all these challenges have been rectified and all machines at the two stations are available and supplying to the national grid.”
Egenco further said rehabilitation works at Kapichira Hydro Power Station in Chikwawa have resumed after a week-long suspension due to adverse weather and heavy rainfall during the cyclone.
Kapichira, with a capacity of 129.6MW, suffered extensive damage at its coffer dam following flooding of the Shire River induced by Tropical Storm Ana in January 2022. The situation forced Egenco to shut down the station, leading to electricity challenges in the country.
The prolonged power rationing, according to Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, negatively affected the manufacturing industry with an estimated cost of K260 million per day,translating to K95.6 billion annually to run diesel-powered generators during outages.
Currently, the main source of electricity in Malawi is hydro-power, which generates nearly 90 percent.
But in the absence of Kapichira, Malawians are being subjected to extended hours of load shedding. Cyclone Freddy, which struck Malawi on March 12 2023, also worsened power generation.
Malawi’s power generation capacity currently stands at 400MW against a demand of 618MW. However, the projected demand of 618MW is against Egenco’s current installed capacity of 539MW.
