Energy expert Grain Malunga has urged the Electricity Generation Company Malawi Limited (EGENCO) to carefully consider its decision to use generators, warning that the move could expose the company to financial losses.
Malunga said EGENCO should learn from the previous deal between Aggreko and the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM), which he said proved costly for the power utility.
The Aggreko deal reportedly cost ESCOM about K117 billion, including K80 billion spent on fuel to operate the generators.
Malunga said concerns were raised over the arrangement at the time, but ESCOM proceeded with the deal, resulting in significant expenditure that he said could have instead been invested in building a new power station.
“People cautioned ESCOM, but it did not listen. At the end, they lost large sums of money which could have been used to build a new power station that could have been generating electricity for a number of years,” said Malunga.
He said failure by EGENCO to learn from the experience would mean the country is repeating the same cycle.
“If they haven’t learnt from that deal, then it’s disappointing,” he said.
Malunga, however, said EGENCO could proceed with the generator plan if its calculations show that the additional power, combined with electricity currently available on the national grid, would make the arrangement viable.
“If they have made their calculations that they will repair some generators and, together with the power that is currently on the grid, they know it will work, then they can proceed,” he said.
