Malawians face ‘dark’ Easter weekend

Malawians are set to have a “dark” Easter weekend as Escom says it will undertake crucial planned maintenance works of its power generation machines.

Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) said the annual maintenance works require long outages of power generating machines. Escom said it carries out the works during Easter to minimise the magnitude of the disturbance on its customers.

Reads an Escom statement in part: “During this [Easter] time, demand for electricity is lower due to the shutting down of most industries.”

Escom said the works will be carried out at Nkula, Kapichira and Wovwe hydro-power stations from 10pm this Wednesday to 6pm on March 28.

“Nkula Power Stations A and B will be taken out of service continuously from 10pm on Thursday 24th March 2016 to 6pm on Saturday 26th March 2016 to undertake planned maintenance works on intake structures, machines underwater parts and auxiliary equipment.

“This will result in the country’s generation capacity being reduced by 124 megawatts [MW], thereby necessitating increased power rationing throughout the country,” reads the statement.

It further said Kapichira Hydro Power Station will be shut down from 5am to 6pm on Sunday and Monday for maintenance works, including scouring and inspecting of dam embankments.

Escom said Wovwe Power Station will be shut down from 7am to 5pm each day during the period from March 25 to March 27 2016 for preventive maintenance and dredging of the intake pond.

In the recent weeks, Escom customers, who make up 10 percent of the 17 million population, have been facing reduced load shedding compared to prolonged hours of blackouts that were being experienced since August last year following the continued dwindling of water flows in the Shire River and Lake Malawi.

Escom public relations officer George Mituka, in an earlier interview with The Nation, attributed the improvement to the fact that Escom had started regulating the flow of Shire River which is the major source of hydro power generation in the country.

He indicated that as of March 9 2016, Escom was discharging 169.59 cubic metres per second (cumecs) at Kamuzu Barrage and that (169.59 cumecs) added to the inflows from the Shire River tributaries downstream of the barrage at Liwonde, is enough for its operations at the power stations.

ENERGY SAVING TIPS

• Using energy efficient lamps such as energy saver bulbs and light emitting diodes (LED) bulbs

• Switch off geysers and air conditioners during peak periods

• Shift most of the cooking to off peak periods

• Switch off all electrical appliances as well as lights that are not in use