Malawians have told government to focus on alternative sources of electricity in order to end power cuts in the country.
Malawi mainly uses water on the Shire River to produce electricity and when the water levels are low, the electricity generated is not enough to meet demand leading to load shedding.
Commenting on Malawi Government Facebook page on Monday, Malawians asked government to consider other sources of power.
“You are busy with hydroelectric power generation but look at those bare hills. Why don’t Malawians want to accept that this problem is environmental? Hence we seriously need to address the environmental issues at hand in tackling this problem,” said Chisomo Mwenye.
“In Geography, learners learn more than one (hydroelectric power) type of power. Time to use the other means so that the learners should visit such power stations. I haven’t mentioned issues of ending blackouts, have I? No I haven’t,” said Argent Chepindani Mpindamalata.
Currently, the alternative sources which are being used in Malawi are fuel generators. ESCOM manages the AGGREKO Emergency Power Diesel Plant in Blantyre and Lilongwe which provides 35MW and 20MW respectively while Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) run a 15MW diesel plant in Lilongwe.
However, through the $350.7 million Malawi Power Compact, Malawi is also constructing substations which will be used as landing and take-off point for power interconnection with Zambia and Mozambique.
One of the substations is the 132/400Kv Transmission substation at Nkhoma which will connect Malawi to Zambia.
