Opinion: Coping with Malawi energy crisis through off-grid and grid-tied solar PV technologies
Malawi is now going through a double crisis in the energy sector. Yesterday, the media reported that ESCOM and Parliament have declared that blackouts will get worse in the country with at least 8 hours of blackout daily.
Unfortunately, this follows a week after MERA raised the prices of petrol and diesel which are the main sources of alternative power for backup generators. As a result, Malawians will not only have prolonged power interruptions from the national grid, but will also find it very hard to run generators for power backup.
Like last week; a friend who runs a premier bet shop lamented that he was running the business at a loss because he runs the shop on a fuel generator for much of the day due to blackouts. “Either, I should try your solar system or I must close down the business,” he said worriedly.
And this other day, I was discussing business with the owner of one of the big lodges in town which also has bars, an event garden, a swimming pool site, and other facilities for luxury. He said that he spends K40, 000 on fuel every 3days to run the generator when ESCOM is off. “Business is hard now. I am not making profits,” he complained while shaking his head in frustration. He wanted us to supply and install a solar system that would back up the lights, TVs and fridges for the premises.
But even with the Aggreko diesel generators which were adding the 78 megawatts to the grid, Malawi has been having challenges with energy for as long as we can remember. Therefore, the crisis now is not really due to the reported decommissioning of the Aggreko generators. Overall, the challenge has been the inadequacies in the capacity of generation and distribution with regards to national power demand.
According to power statistics, only around 11% of Malawians are connected to the national grid, of which 10% are the urban sector. And 6.6% depend on off-grid power, while 77.4% depend on firewood and 18% use charcoal.
These statistics indicate that almost 90% of Malawians are not connected to the national grid. Therefore, EGENCO and ESCOM are failing to provide reliable power to just about 10% of the nation, of which only 2% consume high energy for cooking. And in their projections towards universal electrification, Malawi still expects to connect only about 30% to the grid by 2030.
Nevertheless, if as of 2022 Malawi is still failing to supply uninterrupted power to10% of the country, we can’t expect government to meet the 30% target in the coming 8 years.
Therefore, by any means, the energy crisis is here to stay for, at least, the coming two decades, and possibly three decades or more to achieve universal electrification. The reason is that the demand for power is ever increasing while the supply is rather stagnant, or decreasing with seasons among other factors.
Now, blaming government or politicians or anyone will not improve the situation. This crisis calls for strategic thinking on how we can find cost-effective long lasting solutions for energy requirements at micro and macro levels.
I think we must join the rest of the developed world by embracing and investing in other alternative renewable energies to hydropower, especially those technologies that can be deployed off-grid for micro level energy consumption.
Personally, I strongly feel that of the many renewable energy sources like wind, geothermal and biomass, solar power is the main key to resolving the energy crisis in Malawi.
The government has already embarked on utility-scale solar plants ranging from 1.3 megawatts to 60 megawatts in Salima, Likoma, Chizumulu, Golomoti, Nkhota-kota and Bwengu. Of which, the Salima and Likoma/Chizumula plants were already commissioned.
But regardless of the utility-scale plants, I strongly feel that the solar crusade can be quickly effective and also cater for mitigation of effects of future blackouts, if energy demand at micro level can be solved by private investments into off-grid and grid-tied solar power connections.
If as many houses, schools, lodges, clinics, offices and hotels as possible would generate their own electricity through off-grid or grid-tied systems, the load requirement on the grid and demand for grid connection would be reduced. This would shed off the load on the grid thereby providing the needed balance between energy supply and demand.
However, for individuals and businesses to embrace and invest in solar systems, there is need to fill the public knowledge gap about solar technologies. Government also need further policy intervention or enforcement of the same, especially in ensuring the availability of high quality solar products on the market at affordable prices and enhancing monitoring of good installation practices to protect consumers and give the industry credibility.
Due to the knowledge gap, most Malawians have no confidence in solar power. They don’t understand how it works, how it’s installed and whether it can really generate the required daily energy to power their essential appliances without failure.
Apart from the knowledge gap, others have misconceptions or lost confidence due to bad experience with solar systems. Bad experiences are inevitable when poor quality solar products are used and the installation is also badly done due to poor skills or sheer negligence. Poor quality solar products don’t last long and the system malfunctions within a short period of time leaving the customers disappointed and feeling cheated.
Disappointed customers are one of the challenges we face in the industry because it’s hard to convince them to try solar again.
Last year I visited a prominent Cabinet Minister at his office to convince him to allow us to supply and install solar system for his business premises.
The Minister refused and said, “We installed solar at our business premises before. But the solar was not working well; sometimes it could just go off. So we removed the system and threw it away.” I told him we could do a better job that would make him smile. He replied, “We already invested a lot of millions to buy huge generators which we use now and we are fine. We don’t need solar again.”
In conclusion, I invite all Malawians to join me in the solar crusade as we fight against the energy crisis. Whether you have ESCOM power or your premises do not yet have grid connection, you need solar which has a lot of advantages. Just make sure that the installers give you a warranty of not less than 1 year on the products and must prove that they are well qualified and have adequate experience. Solar is the way to go.
*Lyson Sibande is an entrepreneur and Managing Director of AFTO ENERGY LTD, a renewable company that supplies and installs solar PV technologies for household and commercial power needs.
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