Government signs MoUs with 27 IPPs

Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining  Principal Secretary Kester Kaphaizi says government has the capacity to accommodate more independent power producers (IPPs) in the country.

Meanwhile, government has signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with 27 independent power producers (IPPs) as one way of ending power outages.

Malawi opened up its power sector to IPPs last year, creating excitement among players in the energy sector to end the monopoly by Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom).

IPPs are expected to use biomass, liquid fuels and coal, among others, to add more power to the national grid by 2020.

Speaking on the sidelines of a signing agreement between Malawi Government and CDEN, a French company, on Friday in Lilongwe, Kaphaizi said government has allowed private sector participation in the energy sector to end energy challenges the country is currently facing.

CDEN has projects in Europe and other African countries such as Rwanda, Chad, Tanzania, Uganda, Guinea and Democratic Republic of Congo.

“As government, we are excited that we are signing memorandum of understanding with many campanies. CDEN is one of the IPPs interested to venture into the energy sector and will be generating 100 megawatts from solar energy. If more players can come in, we have the capacity to handle them.”

CDEN chief executive officer Hugues-Antoine Guiniseau said they have experience in the power sector.

“Ours will be a large-scale project, grid connected power generation and grid stabilisation and will be located in Mzimba.

“The power to be produced for the whole project is 100 megawatts generated from solar with large-scale batteries,” he said.

Hugues-Antoine said the company has set aside $200 million (K138 billion) for the project and feasibility studies will start after land is made available.

He said the project is expected to create 200 jobs.