By Deogratias Mmana:
The Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) has mounted the five transformers it received from the Japanese government in June this year for the upgrade of Kanengo and Lilongwe Old Town substations.
Under a $19.05 million (K20 billion) Japanese grant, the equipment will help Escom connect new 79,000 customers.
This comes as only 14 percent of the country’s population has access to electricity despite the government’s ambitious target to boost the rate to 50 percent by 2030.
Escom Public Relations Officer Peter Kanjere said in an interview that after mounting the transformers, the corporation will assemble them and that operations are expected to start later in the year.
Kanjere said the upgrading works for the substations will be completed within the 49-month project period.
“The transformers have been mounted and we are about to start work to assemble them,” Kanjere said.
The Japanese embassy in Lilongwe said the project was on schedule.
During the handover of the transformers in June, Escom Chief Operating Officer Maxwell Mulimakwenda said Kanengo substation will be upgraded from 85 megawatts (mw) to 158mw thereby connecting 58,000 new customers while the Old Town substation will be upgraded from 37.5mw to 50mw allowing Escom to connect 21,000 new customers.
“Over and above that, this project will go a long way towards the realisation of the government’s goal of increasing access to electricity which currently remains very low in the region, at 12 percent,” Mulimakwenda said.
Japan Charge d’ affaires in Malawi Seiji Tashiro said as the project approaches the most critical part of the works, which involves the installation of transformers, Japan looks to the continued commitment of the Ministry of Energy and Escom.
Tashiro said his government’s priority areas focus on quality growth and reaffirmed the commitment to support Malawi’s efforts for its socio economic development including infrastructure development in the energy sector in line with Malawi 2063.
The country aspires to increase access to electricity to 50 percent by 2030 in line with the Malawi Implementation Plan I.
Electricity Generation Company has a total installed generation capacity of 441.95mw, with 390.55mw from hydro power plants and 51.4mw from standby diesel power plants.
Source: The Daily Times_August 21. 2023