Commission upbeat on 50% power access
The National Planning Commission (NPC) says the ambitious target toconnect half of the country’s population have access to the national gridby 2030 and achieve universal coverage by 2050 is achievable.
The ambitious target is contained in the Malawi Vision 2063 (MW2063), which is the successor of Vision 2020 that expired last year.
Currently only 18 percent of the population is accessing electricity, according to the Ministry of Energy. Out of this, 12 percent are connected to the national grid while six percent is covered through mini grids and solar power.
However, experts are expressing mixed feelings with the target since electricity investments are long-term and demand huge investment.
NPC director general Thomas Chataghalala Munthali, in a statement ,said there is need to remain positive about the possibility of achieving the targets in the vision.
He said: “The beauty about this vision is that it is backed by political will and technocratic buy-in. We will be working with the government closely to ensure deliberate policies are designed to fund the projects in the national budget to attain the targets.”
To avoid derailment of the vision through political interference, he said there is already a proposal to review the Political Parties Act to ensure political parties buy -in of the vision into their manifestos.
Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) spokesperson Moses Gwaza in a written response backed the targets in the vision, saying they are achievable and realistic.
He said the Egenco 15-year strategic plan (2018-2033) seeks to increase the national power installed capacity from 367.37 megawatts (MW) as of November 2017 to 1 631.5MW.
From the strategy, Gwaza said the aim is to get to an installed capacity of 521.5MW by 2023, and 1 256.5MW by 2028.
He said: “As of February 2021, we have increased our installed capacity from 367.37MW as of November 2017, to 422.45MW.
“This means that the strategic plan is on track and we should be able to achieve the first five-year target of 521.5MW as planned.”
In an interview, Rodwell Bakolo, a senior lecturer in the Electrical Engineering Department at the Polytechnic, a constituent college of the University of Malawi, said the targets are achievable if proper mechanisms are put in place.
He said the country first needs a serious soul-searching to find what has prevented higher levels of access to energy, be it from the grid, mini grids or solar.
Said Bakolo: “Potential players in the energy sector need to be assured of continued business over a long time for them to invest.”
Energy is a catalyst for development and is highly required for industries and manufacturing.
