Expert demands overhaul of Escom’s crumbling power grid

An energy expert has issued a scathing warning over Malawi’s crumbling power infrastructure, demanding that state-run distributor Escom urgently overhaul its maintenance and monitoring systems to put an end to the country’s persistent power blackouts.

Grain Malunga didn’t mince his words, branding the ongoing system shutdowns that continue to plunge the country into darkness as nothing short of an “economic catastrophe” for Malawi.

The expert believes the solution lies in modern technology, suggesting Escom should urgently incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into its systems — a move he says could allow the utility to detect and fix potential faults before they spiral into sudden, nationwide power cuts that threaten the country’s fragile economy.

Malunga was adamant that the prolonged suffering caused by these repeated shutdowns is entirely avoidable, warning that frequent disruptions are dealing significant damage to economic activity across the country, with businesses repeatedly forced to grind to a complete standstill.

His comments come in the wake of Sunday’s dramatic nationwide system shutdown, which struck at 7:11am and left homes, businesses and institutions across Malawi without power for several hours before supply was gradually restored region by region.

The expert’s stark warning is likely to pile further pressure on Escom, which has faced growing criticism in recent years over recurring outages, with many Malawians and business owners increasingly demanding greater accountability and transparency from the utility over the reliability of the national grid.

As calls mount for urgent reform, all eyes will now be on whether Escom heeds the warning and invests in the modern technology needed to finally bring stability to Malawi’s beleaguered power supply.