Additional 19.1MW off the national power grid for 5 days to allow maintenance works at Tedzani IV

* Diesel generators will be in use to supplement the available hydropower station

* In order to minimize the impact of the outage and inconvenience to the public

* We have recommissioned one machine at Tedzani II which was undergoing rehabilitation works since December 2021

* Which brought back 10MW and has therefore reduced the capacity being removed

By Duncan Mlanjira

Tropical Cyclone Ana, that destroyed Kapichira Hydro Power Station infrastructure of Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) in January that led to the loss of 130 megawatts it generates, also affected a machine at Tedzani IV when rock boulders went into its water exit channel (tailrace).

To carry out some maintenance works on the machine, EGENCO has announced that it will shut down its operations at Tedzani IV from today, Monday till 17:00hrs of Friday, April 29.

However, EGENCO says “in order to minimize the impact of the outage and inconvenience to the public, available diesel generators will be in use to supplement the available hydropower station”.

“We have recommissioned one machine at Tedzani II which was undergoing rehabilitation works since December 2021, which brought back 10MW and has therefore reduced the capacity being removed.”

In the statement, EGENCO explains that the rock boulders that went into water tailrace from the machine has made it impossible to close the water channel when they need to dewater the machine for maintenance or during emergency.

“The works will involve building an isolating wall around the mouth of the exit channel to create a dry working  area to facilitate removal of rock boulders.

“The works coincides with a one-year anniversary of the machine’s commissioning and will enable the Tedzani IV project consultants (TEPSCO) and contractors carry out contractual machine inspection and warranty repairs during the same period.”

The 130MW lost through the damage at Kapichira is 32% of the power of the national grid and to repair the extensive damage caused and restore power lost, EGENCO needs over K18 billion.

The lost of 130MW led to massive load shedding which is crippling a lot of businesses as they have to heavily rely on gensets, whose fuel is very costly.

Meanwhile, President Lazarus Chakwera was on a state visit to Mozambique last week for the continuation bilateral process of the power interconnection agreement between the two countries, which was commissioned last year.

The construction works for the Mozambique-Malawi power transmission interconnection project, from which Malawi is expected to be supplied with 50MW of electricity supply, was commissioned at Phombeya in Balaka District by President Chakwera and his counterpart Filipe Jacinto Nyusi.

The 50MW of electricity supply is for the initial stage with some future potential to increase as the country’s Integrated Resource Plan of 2017 indicates that peak electricity demand will be 1,860MW by 2030 yet currently Malawi’s installed electricity generation capacity is hovering at 50MW.

Last week, Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) officially commissioned a 3.4 megawatts (MW) Muloza Hydro Power Station — that is privately owned by Cedar Energy — and is set to cater for over 2,800 rural households in Phalombe, Mulanje and Thyolo.

The plant is situated at Sukasanje along the road from Phalombe to Muloza in Mulanje. This is government’s initiative to engage private investors to produce power for ESCOM in order to complement services by EGENCO — under independent power producers (IPP).

The goal is to attain 1,000MW of electricity energy by 2025 as recently pledged by Chakwera and other efforts are through solar energy which the President commissioned its plant construction in November in Salima, that is expected to add 20MW to the national grid.

At the commissioning of Muloza Hydro Power Station, ESCOM Chief Executive Officer, Kamkwamba Kumwenda said they are receiving less power than required due to non-availability of adequate electricity generation power producers in the country, thus their effort to engage independent power producers.

“With limited generation capacity, the country is currently experiencing extensive load shedding due to the impact of Cyclone Anna which resulted in the loss of 130MW from Kapichira Power Station,” he had said.

He assured that the figure of 3.4MW “might seem small to others, but as ESCOM, we can assure you that this will have a significant positive impact in reduced shedding program”.

“The coming of CEDAR Energy will increase power supply and greatly improve quality of supply to not only in Muloza but also to estates, businesses, and residential premises to tea growing and manufacturing districts of Thyolo, Mulanje and Phalombe.

“We wish to assure you that ESCOM is making every effort in ensuring that its operations are well aligned with the vision of His Excellency the State President towards MW2063 agenda.”

The project is using Muloza River from Mulanje Mountain by diverting water by gravity through a pipeline that passes into the generation machines and back into the river.

Last year, EGENCO signed a construction contract with Chinese electrical company, CHINT Group, which will be in two phases of 10 megawatts each back to back but the whole project is planned to have a scalable 50MW for the grid.

The other 30MW shall be done after completion of the two phases, whose concept was rolled out in 2017 as soon as the company was formed to be generating power for ESCOM.

EGENCO also have a coal powered project being considered through a feasibility study being carried out at Kammwamba in Balaka District by a German consultant.