By Duncan Mlanjira
In his analysis of President Lazarus Chakwera’s first State of Nation Address (SONA) made in Parliament on Friday, social commentator, Edgar Kapiza Bayani said he summarily sees the SONA as having missed the opportunity to postulate a candid vision to accelerate access to clean electricity for Malawians — based on the Tonse promises.
As a community energy sector player, Bayani says in general the country’s leadership seems still obsessed with “big” energy projects, ignoring other equally viable alternatives.
“Despite recognizing that only 18% of Malawians access the grid, the SONA lacks the killer punch to demonstrate its commitment to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 — increasing access to clean energy for all by 2030.
Edgar Kapiza Bayani
“While the President’s creation of a stand-alone Ministry of Energy is a welcome development, the same, however, has not prominently featured in the SONA in a way that reflects the ‘Golden Thread that connects all nature of the energy sector.”
Bayani says energy is sandwiched in the one page of Infrastructure Access. The only routes to accelerate access mentioned in the SONA are the interconnection to Southern Africa Power Pool (SAAP) by 2022, 60MW Solar Project in Salima, and securing investors for 360MW Mpatamanga Hydro Project.
“All of these are long term projects and as for Salima Project, it was launched years back, but only a plaque exists to date.
Power infrastructure at Phombeya in Balaka
“The free connections to electricity are not mentioned even though the president has candidly signaled an interest to develop rural areas and ‘inspire new generation of Malawians’.
“Conspicuously missing are key reform recommendations in the energy policy like, decentralizing Ministry of Energy and restructuring of Malawi Rural Electrification Fund to, among others, create a Rural Electrification Agency.”
Bayani notes that there is no mention of off-grid interventions which the Malawi Renewable Energy Strategy recognize as having potential to connect 27% or 4.7 million of the population if harnessed.
Phombeya as well
“There is no mention of the flagship projects already in play like the US$144 World Bank financed Malawi Electricity Access Project (MEAP); the UNDP/GEF financed Access to Clean and Renewable Energy (ACRE) Project and the MAREP pipeline off-grid projects.
“These interventions will, perhaps, support close to 10 mini-grids if not more across the country and will produce instant gains as is the case with Sitolo 80kW Solar Mini-grid in Mchinji, as we wait for the big projects to materialize.
Infrastructure at Tedzani
“But this is President Chakwera’s maiden SONA, we still have 4 years ahead of us [and] I am hopeful that the next SONA will build on the existing policies and strategies.”
He continues to say that the country has the 2018 National Energy Policy; the Malawi Renewable Energy Strategy; the Malawi SE4All Action Agenda; the Malawi Energy Investment Study Report and many others which would help to give the president a fair picture of the sector.
“It would be good to see the president articulating how the government has fared against these laid down policies/strategies and what plans are in place to implement them in the year ahead.
Alternative power from diesel generators
“Otherwise, we are happy the Kam’mwamba Coal Fired Project is not mentioned and does this signify the project has been abandoned owing to its economic, social and environmental concerns?”
In his SONA, under the subhead of Infrastructure Access, Chakwera
hasd said his government will catalyze domestic and external economic integration through improved infrastructure development.
Central to achieving this, he said, is providing electricity for industrial and commercial purposes and road network to provide access to input and output markets.
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“Currently, only 18 percent of Malawians have access to electricity, while an estimated 80 percent of the country’s roads remain unpaved.
“Our intervention to cut the power deficit will be to work with the Mozambican authorities to ensure that the deadline for connecting to their electricity grid in 2022 is not missed.
“Once this is done, Malawi will have access to the Southern Africa Power Pool. In addition, we will resume construction of the country’s 60 MW solar project and secure a strategic sponsor for the 350MW Mpatamanga Hydro Project.
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“We are also concluding Independent Power Producer Agreements, which will open the sector to private investors, which will require new leadership at ESCOM to facilitate such reforms as new tariff structures that reflect market realities.
“We will, in addition, revisit many of the existing energy contracts and petroleum production sharing agreements in line with the law, ending those that are economically unsustainable and signed under questionable terms during the previous Administration.”
He added that the travesty in the energy sector has been happening at a time the rest of the world is making phenomenal advancements in transportation, especially rail, neglected by the previous Administration to favor politically connected transporters.
The President pledged that his Administration will bring back rail system of transportation.
A fuel train wagon tankers
When Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) adjusts fuel prices, it applies the Automatic Pricing Mechanism as according to in-bond landed cost (IBLC).
The IBLC is the weighted average of costs for each route the fuel is transported which is set at 50% through Beira; 30% through Dar-es-Salaam and 20% for Nacala.
If the fuel transportation was to be used through rail (Beira and Nacala) as was done during President Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda’s Malawi Congress Party (MCP)-led government, pump prices could have been lower.
Trains can carry up 50 wagon tankers per trip while road tankers are single carriers.
Former President Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda