Malawi seal K94bn electricity deal with Mozambique to start 2022
Malawi has signed technical and commercial agreements with Mozambique for the sharing of power in a bid to address a chronic blackouts hitting the country that will give Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) an opportunity to buy 200 megawatts (MW) of power from the Southern Africa Power Pool (Sapp) starting in 2022.
Speaking during the signing ceremony held at Bingu International Convention Center-BICC in Lilongwe, Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining Aggrey Masi said the $127 million (about K94 billion) power interconnection project with Mozambique will “take time”.
He said: “We need to construct transmission lines first and that project will take us till 2022.”
Masi signed the five project agreements between Escom and Electricidade De Mocambique (E. P. EDM) with his counterpart from Mozambique, Ernesto Tonela.
The project agreements that include implementation, system operating, maintenance, wheeling and power purchase, are subject to renewal every five years as Malawi is still developing its internal power generation capacity.
He said: “Upon completion of the project, we will get 50MW from Mozambique and another 150MW from South Africa totalling 200MW. We are already discussing with the South African Government within the Sapp framework.”
Masi said Malawi depends much on hydropower.
“We generate 90 percent of power from water but look at the current, situation climate change is not doing well for us,” said Masi.
Mozambique Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Ernesto Tonela said project will ensure Mozambique exports power to Malawi.
The transmission lines for the project, whose negotiations started in 2007 after the World Bank approved a $93 million line of credit, but later cancelled it in 2010 citing Malawi Parliament’s failure to approve the Loan Authorisation Bill, will cover a distance of 210 kilometres (km) from Matambo in Tete Province to Phombeya in Balaka.
The line is expected to be a double circuit with a carrying capacity of 2 400 kilovolts when all phases are completed.
Germany Ambassador Jurgen Borsh, whose government through KfW, a development bank, provided part of the funding of the project, described the agreements as a milestone for sustainably overcoming energy shortages in Malawi.
The other financiers, who have pulled 20 million euros (about K17 billion) are the World Bank and Norwegian Trust Fund.
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But as a Nation do we really know what we are doing? We have many Malawian assets in Mozambique (Nkaya-Nacala Railway line, Donna Anna bridge etc) But we are not using them. Are we sure this project will help us? Will the Mozambicans not change in future?
akufuna akuti achite tap magetsi ku mozambique nthawi yonseyi amatani
All this buying electricity from outside the country (Zambia first and now Mozambique) only puts money, and lots of it, into their pockets. We should be investing that money in home produced electricity, not depending on others. What about wind power, solar power and even wave power on Lake Malawi? Not only is it costly to buy power from other providers, but it is also costly to actually bring it to Malawi with power lines. This issue of a power supply sufficient to meet the country’s needs now and in the future is a pressing one and should have been addressed years ago. No wonder our poor country is so under-developed.
Which South Africa r discussing with. Kkkkkk in South Africa escom is finish with the Gupta kkkk Jst Keep on talks with Mozambique
I don’t understand it either. Escom South Africa is fucked up, actually it is also depending on Mozambican energy. No please don’t rely on South Africa.
Thus very nice .This is what we are expecting.Then what next.What about pipe line of fuel from Beira port to Nsanje
Please reporters inform Malawians whether these monies are grants or loans and what are their conditions. Also explain, by adding the 200 MW will Malawi have completely filled the energy deficit that is there now. Do more research and make your stories complete.
This is the kind of cross border trade that should have been at least initiated by that almighty DICTATOR, MCP”s Kamuzu Banda, in the mid to late 1970s when Cab(h)ora Bassa Dam was operational. But, no. Kamuzu was conniving against FRELIMO, and siding with the Portuguese colonial occupiers and, by proxy, fighting with RENAMO. Just as Moz sold much of the power to South African mines, we could have piggybacked on some sort of deal too.
Countries plan thirty-fifty years ahead for power supply, but Kamuzu just phwii, and unloaded all the problems to future generations. To be sure, the guy was good at two things: persecuting his own people, denying them basic human rights and even sponsored the murder of many. And, also corruption to the extreme: it’s indisputable and well known that he enriched himself and his cronies through deals with foreign companies who brought a few factories (like Carlsberg) to this country.
He was, for sure, one of the most corrupt African Presidents of his time!
Many of the educated elites he “dispatched” into exile could have helped him with the planning, because most of them had the interests of the village Malawians at heart.
It is more than satisfying to witness that it takes a non economist President to have the foresight, and seriously start investing in the energy sector.
Chilima: does he even have tangible plans, beyond rhetoric, to start solving our energy crisis? He’s an economist, is he NOT? Wa pa Chirunga, busy kumwa mowa ndi Thobwa baasi. And his lack of experience outside telecom, and outside Malawi is not helpful either. He’s constrained further because he’s doesn’t want to take advice from anyone else, on anything. He knows it all. Kamuzu was like that too.
And the hubris! Also just like Kamuzu.
There was a civil war in Mozambique in the seventies and eighties. RENAMO use to destroy infrastructure such as railways. Do you believe that RENAMO would have allowed the powerlines to stand without destroying them. This opportunity to connect to the Mozambique grid is now available because the environment is conducive, It was not before.
Secondly, I remember under Kamuzu, electricity was not a problem. It was his Government expanded Nkula falls and constructed Tedzani Hydro electric schemes. It is not as if the Government under Kamuzu did not invest in Electricity when it was in power. Do you think that the Electricity infrastructure in country just grew from the ground?
South africa generates 52,000plus MW. And all this noise for improting a 200MW zoona? Mxiew
Lets hope another party goes into govt before some of the funding reaches Malawi, otherwise DPP will steal it all. Watch out instead if K145 kickback, it may be K300million form some contractors
south africa is facing acute shortage of power how will they be able to export?
It was rehabilitation of our hydro machines and later hiring of expensive Generators from India followed by getting connected to powerlines from Zambia within there was also about a certain foreign company supplying power in the main grid lines and this Mozambique thing now… we don’t know what’s next
1.South Africans are complaining of daily blackouts and you are telling us you will get 150Mwgawatts from SA .Really are you telling Rango???? 2 .Why did bingu rejected such deals. 3 Will Mozambique open shire Zambezi waterway 4. Some one must resign before 21 May