Malawi power blackouts situation worsens

At the time the nation was eager to resume a moment of uninterrupted electricity supply, the situation has just gotten worse with some parts of the country experiencing intermittent blackouts every two hours.

For the past four weeks, the country experienced a moment of critical blackouts following the shut-down of Nkula A and B power stations by the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) due to Shire River flooding.

Trash and debris choked power generation machines.

The utility service provider promised to rectify the problem by Friday January 30th, giving hope to the consumers especially those whose business operations were affected by the blackouts

However, the situation has failed to improve with Escom now running out of excuses.

Escom Public Relations Manager, Kitty Chingota in an interview attributed to the intermitted blackouts to the debris that has clogged the Kapichira power station.

Chingota said the electricity service provider finished working on Nkula A and B problem last week but could not resume normal power supply due to the new challenge at Kapichira.

“We are being forced to shut-down our machines at Kapichira almost every two hours to remove the debris. But situation at Nkula is back to normal, we have managed to repair the damage caused by the floods,” she said.

Chingota justified frequent shutting down of machines at Kapichira power station, saying “That is the only way of protecting the machines from being damaged by the debris”.

The Accumulation of silt at Nkula power plants A and B due to heavy rainfall, forced the power generating body to remove machines which were supplying 124 megawatts of Electricity, with the utility service provider losing out K4.1million in daily revenue due to extraction of the machines.

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