Electricity supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) has announced the customers will continue experiencing power blackouts as the power supply situation has not improved due to maintenance works at Kapichira power station.
Last week, ESCOM and Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) officials were quoted as saying tat the power situation had stabilized.
Escom Public Relations Manager Kitty Chingota said the situation has just returned to pre Cyclone Freddy times.”Load shedding continues as the available capacity is still below demand.
“‘However , worth noting is that we have reduced load shedding on industrial customers only,” Chingota said.
Before the cyclone hit, Escom had been rationing power to eight hours in a day . Cyclone-induced rains exacerbated power problems that the country had been experiencing since last year after cofferdam was damaged at Kapichila plant.
Egenco Chief Executive Officer , William Liabunya said last week that the company was generating an average of 254 megawattts of electricity from all hydro power stations.
Egenco, through a statement released on Wednesday, said it had been facing difficulties to generate power at its Nkula A and Tedzani 3 machines because of excess trash debris, silt and rocks, which accumulated on water intakes because of Cyclone disaster, a challenge which the company has now sorted.
In February , Egenco spokesperson Moses Gwaza indicated that rehabilitation works at Kapichira would be completed by the end of that month.
Source: The Daily times news_Tuesday , April 4,2023_by Isaac Salima