Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) has said the 400 kilovolts Malawi–Mozambique power interconnector is advancing as it has now reached a stage of identifying a contractor.
This was said on the sidelines of the arrival of 28 trucks carrying diesel power generators to be installed in Blantyre.
Escom Board chairperson, Perks Ligoya, said much as the corporation understand that generating power from diesel generators is expensive, the parastatal is still advancing on the Malawi – Mozambique power interconnector.
“Diesel generators are expensive but this is a medium term solution. We have other long term solutions and as of now I can tell you that everything to do with the Malawi-Mozambique power interconnector has been finalised,” he said.
Ligoya said funding for the project has already been identified, what remain is to identify contractors for the job.
He said the interconnector is not only going to connect Malawi with Mozambique, but all the other Sadc member countries.
“We will be able to purchase power from all the member countries and when we have excess power, we will also be able to sell our power to the rest of Sadc,” said Ligoya.
He further said apart from the Aggreko agreement, there are a lot of Independent Power Producers (IPPs) that will sign agreements with Egenco.
“As Escom we will be considering the tariff rate when purchasing power from the IPPs. We do not want to burden our customers with high tariff rates,” he said.