Electricity Generation Company of Malawi (Egenco), has embarked on multi-million power establishment projects in some parts of the country as one way of increasing electricity capacity.
The government will bankroll the project.
Natural Resources Minister, Energy and Mining, Bintony Kutsaira disclosed this on Tuesday during a familiarisation tour of Engenco’s establishments at Kamuzu Barrage in Machinga and Mapanga Diesel Power Plant in Blantyre.
Kutsaira said the government has invested K8 billion in new establishments aimed at increasing power supply in the country.
“These new power establishments will definitely improve the country’s electricity supply to accommodate more Malawians with power. We are getting 20 megawatts into the national grid through this investment,” Kutsaira said.
He said the government had activities and programmes lined up to increase power supply in the country.
“The first one is starting next month [August] called the interconnector where we will be buying 80 megawatts from Zambia and it’s a project funded by the Chinese government to the tune of $30 million and it will take us a period of six months to connect from Chipata to Nkhoma where our national grid will be tapping power from,” he said
Egenco Chief Executive Officer, William Liabunya, said the barrage, which was commissioned early this year, would improve water storage and weed management.
“We have increased the size of its gates as previously the gates were shorter which means we will be able to store more water about one-foot higher that what we used to store previously. The controls of this gate are also automatic. Whenever we want a certain amount of water to pass through the gates we precisely set it from the control room, which is computerised.
“We are also able to control the weeds from accumulating with our weed management equipment. With our three harvesters, we are able to efficiently clear the weeds and this year, for the first time, we may have the weeds cleared as we go into the dry season,”Liabunya said.
Source: The Daily Times_Business page_Thursday 25, July 2019_by Matilda Chimwaza