Malawi President Joyce Banda will on Friday preside over the official commissioning of the Kaphichira Phase II Hydroelectric Power project which will add 64 megawatts to the national power grid.
With the addition of Kapichira Phase ll to the national power grid, the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) generation capacity is now at 351MW against a forecast peak demand of 350MW. The increased supply is expected to ease power problems in the country.
The State House in a statement on Monday said the President will also commission a 30 kilometre, 132kV transmission line from Kapichira Power Station to Blantyre-West Substation together with a 50MVA transformer at the Blantyre-West Substation at Green Corner.
The transmission line will ease transfer of the additional power from Kapichira into the national power grid.
The $55 million project has been financed by the government, through the Ministry of Energy. Escom has implemented and supervised the project.
“Apart from increasing power supply nationally, a total of 21 rural centres are being electrified across the country, a development that has been made possible because of the improved power generation and supply,” said Steven Nhlane, the presidential press secretary in a statement.
The energy sector is one of the five pillars that government identified to improve the country’s economy under the Economic Recovery Plan (ERP) unveiled last year. Other sectors are tourism, mining, infrastructure and agriculture.
Following the successful completion of this project, Kapichira Power Station is now the largest on the Escom system with a total installed capacity of 128MW that is 4MW more than the Nkula Power Station that has a total installed capacity of 124MW.
The Kapichira Phase ll Hydroelectric Power Project was implemented as an Engineering, Procurement, Construction (EPC) Contract awarded to China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC) Limited of China.
