ESCOM to boost power supply by 70MW

As a way of reducing blackouts that are rocking the country, the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) is to add 70 Megawatts of power to the national power grid through the use of solar power supplied by Independent Power Producers (IPPs) that is expected to be completed and fully operational by October, 2018.

This was revealed at a pre-bid meeting that ESCOM held with interested Independent Power Producers at Ryalls Hotel in Blantyre in order to familiarize them with the bidding requirements and process.

According to ESCOM, this is one of the short term mitigation measures that it is implementing against the prevailing power crisis which is happening because ESCOM is not able to generate power to its maximum capacity due to dwindling water levels in Lake Malawi.

Four sites in Salima, Nkhotakota, Lilongwe and Golomoti have been selected for the IPPs to set up and establish power stations that will supply power to ESCOM.

An addition of 70MW will increase the country’s power capacity to 431MW from 361MW.

It is expected that this will reduce load shedding periods and frequencies.

The IPPs will be generating power through Solar Photovoltaic Power systems. A photovoltaic Power system generates power by converting light into electricity using solar panels.