Persistent rains taking huge toll on ESCOM in clearing consistent faults

Response to fault report in deep Chirimba area

* Accompanied with torrential winds, the rains have led to system shutdown at ESCOM

* As some of its transmission and distribution lines were brought down

* Resulting in an increase in number of faults on the supply system

By Duncan Mlanjira

Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) has transferred to Blantyre some of its fault clearing staff who were stationed in other districts that are not experiencing persistent rains which has worst hit Blantyre this month of February.

The rains, accompanied with torrential winds, have led to system shutdown at ESCOM as some of its transmission and distribution lines were brought down — resulting in an increase in number of faults on the supply system.

The system shutdowns have also been due to heavy flow of water and trash that affected the hydro power plants at Nkula and Tedzani Power Stations.

The fault clearing exercise became a huge challenge and dangerous for ESCOM linesmen to clear since the rains would resume most unexpectedly, which forced them to return to base on their way to respond to fault reports.

After the media separately kept engaging ESCOM management of the concerns from customers that the power utility service provider was taking too long to respond to reported faults and supply transmission interruptions, the company’s public relations office mobilize some journalists to experience the challenges being faced on the ground.

The group of journalists were taken to Maliya, a remote area past Chilomoni area of Chigwaja where a transmission supply interruption had been reported and the first of the challenges being faced by the ESCOM fault-rectifying linesmen was very bad road conditions.

Before we could reach the area, the rains started falling, rendering the road terrain very challenging to manouvre as strong flow of water from the hills made it difficult for the driver of the off-road 4+4 to determine the depth of potholes filled with water.

A journey that could have taken us less than 30 minutes, was done in close to an hour of carefully negotiations of the potholes, coupled with slipperily rocky road surfaces.

While the staff were determined to wait at Maliya until the rains subsided to determine the try of fault, they were informed that it was a general area fault through transmission like from Nkula Hydro Power Station and that another team is already at site.

We returned to visit another SOS in remote Chirimba area where we reached a dead end and we had to follow the two linesmen by foot carrying their ladder for almost half a kilometre — negotiating on tight paths between houses — to the spot where the linesmen, while it was still showering, managed to clear a fault that affected four houses from one transmission pole.

At the site, the resident who reported the fault, Francis Kanduna, said he had been perplexed that ESCOM wasn’t responding to the call until he was appraised that, with the persistent rains, the linesmen couldn’t risk working in such dangerous situation.

While he said that he was relieved that power was back, he hoped that it would be permanent since they usually experience power outages — especially when it is windy.

Public Relations Manager, Kitty Chingota said they are equally concerned with what their customers are experiencing through constant power interruptions but it is the adverse weather conditions that they are challenged with.

She said rainy seasons are always a challenge — thus engaging the media to appreciate for themselves the situation on the ground for ESCOM’s fault clearing technicians.

“When there is an outage in power supply, we are forced to do load shedding and during such a period we don’t clear faults because, before we leave the fault area, we want to confirm that the fault has been rectified and that power is back,” she said.

She thus said they had to transfer some members of staff from other districts which are not experiencing the persistent rains to Blantyre to beef up in responding to the constant faults.

“Blantyre has been worst hit by the persistent rains and we had to deploy more staff to speed by the fault clearance rate. We do take note that the power supply interruptions are inconveniencing our customers and we are doing the best we can to serve better.

“We urge them to continue reporting on any power supply interruptions and while at it, we also appeal to the public to treat all mains as live and to switch off all appliances when there is no power because it can be restored at any time.”

Last week, as power transmission and supply lines were being brought down due to the torrential rains, ESCOM also warned the public not to get near or touch any electricity wires or poles that might have fallen on the ground or are leaning badly as they might be live and cause accidents.

The public was encouraged to report immediately to ESCOM or any nearest Police station for action and also that in order to conserve energy, customers should switch off lights in unoccupied rooms and idle electrical appliances.