Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) customers will experience at least 17.5 hours of loadshedding per day from Thursday, 15 December to Monday, 19 December as the 100 Megawatt Nkula B Power Station will be shut down.
According to Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO), the power station will be closed to allow for repair of a damaged bypass pipe. The works will require dewatering of the tunnels and penstocks to facilitate safe working environment for the maintenance team.
“These works are necessary to cure leakage before further damage occurs to the machine and to mitigate risk of flooding the powerhouse,” reads part of the statement.
The shutting down of all machines at Nkula B will lead to a loss of 100 Megawatts of power and the national grid will only have 117 Megawatts of electricity.
In a separate statement, ESCOM has said the available power will be used for essential loads such as Central referral hospitals and water pump ping stations.
“Therefore all domestic and industrial customers will be subjected to an average of 17.5 hours of load shedding,” the electricity supply company said.
Currently, Malawians already experience at least 6 hours of blackout a day following the damage at Kapichira Power Station in January this year.
EGENCO officials promised Malawians that the power station will be back in operation on 25 December this year.
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