Government of Malawi through the Ministry of Energy says it is tirelessly working towards the reduction of blackouts in the country.
Speaking today at a press briefing in Lilongwe, Minister of Energy Ibrahim Matola responded to concerns that blackouts will worsen as Malawi is set to lose 78 Megawatts which were being supplied by Aggreko using its diesel generators.
Matola said the end of the contract will not hugely affect power supply in Malawi.
He said Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) will take over from where Aggreko stopped. He further said Egenco’s standby gensets at Kanengo will be used only when the necessity arises.
“I am aware there have been reports on possibility of extended load shedding as a result of the decommissioning of the Aggreko generators. I would like to assure the public that there are measures that have been put in place to minimise the load shedding. Apart from the additional power that has been added from the independent power producers, the Egenco diesel generators will be on standby to be used in place of the aggreko machines,” said Matola.
According to Matola, the country had hopes that independent power producers would come and since they did not, government resorted to Aggreko again and renewed the contract which has now expired.
He has, however, assured the general Public that there is hope as President Lazarus Chakwera is expected to commission a solar power plant that will add 60 megawatts to the grid.
He then assured Malawians that government will do anything possible to make sure power is available.
Malawi Government cancelled the deal with Aggreko due to concerns that it was expensive and was draining Electricty Supply Corporation of Malawi’s resources.
“Most of ESCOM’s resources have gone towards covering the cost of running the Aggreko generators. As such, government felt the need to invest such resources in enhancing power generating projects,” Matola said.
