The Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) says electricity generation capacity has improved following the onset rains in some parts of the country. The improvement comes at a time when the country has been experiencing extended load shedding hours which Egenco earlier attributed to low water levels in Lake Malawi and its sole outlet. Shire River, where over 90 percent of the country’s electricity is generated.
But in an interview yesterday, Egenco spokesperson Moses Gwaza said rains that have been falling in parts of the Southern Region have boosted the power generation capacity as the company now producing between 200 to 210 megawatts (MW), up from 180MW or less from a compressed demand of 351MW. He said, “As of today(yesterday-Monday the 10th December, 2018), our update is showing that we are producing 209 megawatts. But it should be noted that the rains that have more impact on the water levels are those that fall in some parts of the Southern Region as the river flow directly into the Shire River so we mainly depend those”.
“So, the rains will definately continue to improve production of electricity in the country”. Gwaza cited districts like Mwanza, Neno, Machinga, Liwonde and ZOmba as some of the key districts whose rainfall impacts water levels in teh Shire River and Lake Malawi, into which the waters flow directly.
In October, Egenco said as part of long-term solutions to ease the blackouts, it was planning to diversify generation through a number of projects, including 300MW Kam’mwamba Coal Project that is expected to be implemented in three phases of 100MW each.
But in the same month, the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) attributed to Mwera winds the extended load shedding hours that could go up to nine hours at a time. As one way of addressing the power challenges, governemnt hired emergency generators from Aggrekko.
The leasing of the generators has also been marred by controversey, with the civil society accusing the government of entering into a shodddy deal which eneded up milking tax payers money. The country has been experiencing power outages since 2017 when the consumers were being subjected to 23 hours of load shedding per day.
Source: THe Nation_December 11, 2018_By Lloyd Chitsulo