Brace for more blackouts—Escom
Malawians should brace for prolonged hours of blackouts following the continued dwindling of water flows in the Shire River and Lake Malawi, that is the message from Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom).
During the just ended Christmas and New Year festive season, Escom customers, who make up 10 percent of the 16 million population, breathed a sigh of relief when they experienced reduced power outages largely attributed to the shutting down of most industries for holidays.
In a statement issued yesterday, Escom said the low water levels have reduced its generation capacity to 185 megawatts (MW) against a maximum forecast demand of 350MW; hence, necessitating increased load shedding.
In August last year, Escom announced that the frequent and prolonged power outages would continue to worsen until the onset of the rains later in 2015.
However, yesterday, Escom said despite the onset of the rainy season, water levels in Lake Malawi and its sole outlet, Shire River, continue to dwindle due to the dry spell currently being experienced.
Reads the Escom statement in part: “Since the onset of the rains late last year, the water flow in Shire River, which is the major source of hydro power generation in the country, as measured at Kamuzu Barrage [in Liwonde, Machinga], reached the highest on 19th December 2015 when it reached 154 cubic metres per second [cumecs].
“The water flow has steadily decreased from then and as of Wednesday 6 January 2016, it reached 131.76 cumecs. For Escom to generate electricity at its full capacity of 351.74 megawatts, it requires 230 cumecs as compared to the current 131.76 cumecs.”
In an earlier interview, Escom public relations officer George Mituka said they expected the situation to improve “if the country, especially the northern part of Malawi, including Tanzania, experience adequate rainfall to fill out Lake Malawi”.
He said Escom would use its dredgers to remove silt from the intake ponds to restore their capacity for storing water for generation.
Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) president Newton Kambala, in an earlier interview, said in times of frequent and prolonged electricity blackouts, companies experience huge loses.
Escom has since requested its customers to use energy sparingly by, among other things, using energy efficient lamps and shifting most of the cooking to off peak periods.
According to the MCCCI Business Climate Survey 2015, electricity continues to be one of the greatest obstacles to doing business in the county. n
