Tedzani works to cost Egenco K1.4bn 

Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) says operation of diesel-powered generators to fill the 19 megawatts (MW) gap due to maintenance works at Tedzani IV Hydro Power Station will cost the company about K1.4 billion.

Egenco spokesperson Moses Gwaza said in a written response to a questionnaire that between September 12 and 26, the works will be carried out for six hours per day from 11pm to 5am, with each diesel generator using 420 litres to produce 2 MW per hour.

He said: “The works will be carried out from 11pm to 5am and only shut down over the weekend from Friday. This means that, during the day, Tedzani IV Hydro Power Plant will be available and in operation except for weekends.

“So, although running diesel generators is very expensive, we are, however, looking at the greater good of the economy when making these decisions.  It is better for the economy to have power other than having no power at all.”

The development has come at a time the country is facing a shortage of fuel, but Gwaza said Egenco engaged the National Oil Company of Malawi (Nocma) to prioritise it on fuel in their distribution.

He said: “While it is not sustainable and expensive [to operate diesel generators], we need to take responsibility and ensure that critical services of our nation have power supply and are running.

“You may wish to further note that our diesel-generated power is still much cheaper than the Aggreko diesel power. It is, therefore, better to still provide such power regardless [of the said cost].”

The Nation calculations show that to produce 19.1MW, Egenco will require at least 3 990 litres per hour at K1 920 per litre means the company will require K7.6 million per  hour.

Although Gwaza said the diesel generators  will be operating for six hours only on working days, the company will have to spend about K46 million a day  and for the 11 working days Egenco will have spent about K505.6 million.

In case Egenco operates the diesel generators for 96 hours on weekends, it will spend K735 million, resulting in K1.4 billion for the whole maintenance period.

However, Gwaza has assured that they will continue to run all the available diesel generators to supplement the available hydropower plants.

“That is why the outage of the Tedzani IV Hydro Power Station needed to be done. I want to assure you that we are working around the clock to ensure that we resume generating adequate power for the nation very soon once the Kapichira Hydro Power plant is back,” he said.

Since January this year when Tropical Storm Ana damaged Egenco’s Kapichira Hydro Power Station in Chikwawa, knocking off 130MW from the national grid, Malawians have endured long hours of loadshedding.

Besides Tedzani IV, Egenco also generates a combined 94MW at Tedzani I, II and III while Nkula A and B feed about 135.1MW into the national grid and Wovwe Mini Hydro in Karonga produces 4.35MW, totalling 233.5MW against a demand of about 618MW.