Press Corporation (PCL) plc has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) for the conglomerate’s 50 megawatts (MW) solar power plant in Lilongwe.
PCL chief executive officer Ronald Mangani, speaking during the signing ceremony in Blantyre yesterday, said the $55.1 million (about K96.4 billion) investment demonstrated that domestic capital can play a meaningful role in developing the country.
Layton Chithambo | George Lumwira
He said the solar project will have battery technology to ensure stable power supply and will be able to add its power into the national grid within two years from now.
Said Mangani: “We have a timeline and by that time line within a period of two years from now, we should be able to implement the project to a point where we begin to put power into the national grid.
“We will be contributing to energy generation in the country, we will be contributing to employment creation and we will also be contributing to saving of foreign exchange.”
On his part, Escom CEO Kamkwamba Kumwenda said PCL’s investment is special for the country, adding that as a local company, it will not externalise foreign exchange.
However, he could not disclose the agreed tariff in the PPA, but said PCL financial model and tariff proposals are reasonable and doable.
Said Kumwenda: “When we are coming up with a tariff, the investor brings to us a financial model, but we make sure that the tariff that the investor is asking for is reasonable to the end users.”
Meanwhile, Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) director of finance Zacharia Ng’oma has described the signing of the PPA as a historic milestone for the country’s energy sector, which is dominated by foreign IPPs.
“Press Corporation is the first local investor in electricity generation since the unbundling of Escom,” he said.
Commenting on the stalled IPP projects where out of about 30 licensed companies only four have rolled out, Ng’oma said Mera together with the Ministry of Energy will act on such projects that are not registering progress.
Earlier, Secretary for Energy Alfonso Chikuni attributed the slow progress of IPPs to foreign exchange challenges.
PCL solar power project is based in Nkhoma, Lilongwe and will be run by its new subsidiary, Press Energy Limited.
Malawi has a total installed power capacity of about 441.95MW against suppressed demand of 527MW.
Source: The nation-George Lumwira-staff reporter-18 December 2025