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Residents dispute Escom claims of reduced blackouts

Despite claims by Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) that the commissioning of diesel generators has helped to reduce hours of blackouts consumers experienced, the situation on the ground shows no change.

President Peter Mutharika on Wednesday commissioned 55 megawatts (MW) generators in Blantyre, which Escom claimed would reduce load shedding by six hours.

Up and running: The gensets

This sounded as a relief as Malawians, in worst case scenarios have endured up to 25 hours of blackouts.

But people we randomnly spoke to nationwide, have complained of continued long hours of blackouts, wondering why Escom insist the hours of blackouts have been reduced.

“This is what we are experiencing; we have not seen any change despite the Escom claims that change was coming with commissioning of the gensets,” said one frustrated Blantyre resident.

A barber shop owner in Lilongwe’s Area 25 B said they continue to experience the usual prolonged blackouts.

However, Escom acting public relations manager George Mituka, in an interview yesterday, insisted that load shedding hours were immediately reduced to six hours,—from eight hours—after the commissioning of the generators in Blantyre.

“We have divided the load shedding groups into four, nationwide. If an area is switched off, say at 5am, they should expect to have power back after six hours [in this example, 11am].

“We are going to put the new loadshedding schedule in the newspapers from Monday or thereabout. The new schedule was effective February 2 [last Friday],” he said.

Mituka dismissed claims by some residents that there were no changes after the generators were commissioned, arguing that the prolonged blackouts could be for other reasons; hence the people must report to their faults departments.

Mutharika during the commissioning of the generators said within five years as a long term solution, Malawi would be able to generate 1 400 MW of coal-fired power and about 700 MW of solar energy.

The President said Malawi will also connect to the Southern African Development Commission (Sadc) region power pool to enable the nation to purchase power from other countries when need arise.

Mutharika also justified the involvement of Aggreko plc that is supplying the generators in the power venture, saying it is part of attracting foreign investments. n

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