Malawi and Zambia sign power-sharing deal
The governments of Malawi and Zambia have signed a power-sharing deal that will enable the two countries sell electricity to each other in times of need.
Malawi Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining permanent secretary Ben Botolo says that the two countries will now embark on the construction of an electricity interconnector.
Malawi, which is yet to connect to the Southern Africa Power Pool, is also pursuing plans to interconnect with Mozambique through an $80-million project that will be financed by the World Bank’s International Development Association.
Construction of the Mozambique–Malawi power interconnector is expected to be completed in 2017.
Malawi has an installed electricity generation capacity of 351.5 MW. Its peak demand currently stands at 350 MW but studies have shown that it will grow to 829 MW by 2020 owing to population growth and a projected upsurge in demand from the country’s emerging mining sector.
Malawi is currently experiencing a power crisis, which power utility Escom has attributed to reduced water levels in Lake Malawi and its outlet, the Shire river, which are the major sources of water for hydropower electricity generation in the country. “In the current scenario, if [our] power stations were to run at full capacity, this would mean fast depletion of water storage pond levels, a situation that is not desirable for sustained operations. This is a reality that is not reversible at the moment and is likely to worsen in the next four to five months,” says Escom.
Escom has attributed to reduced water levels in Lake Malawi and the Shire river to low rainfall in the past season.
Malawi generates 98% of its power from hydropower stations on the Shire river, which include Nkula, Tedzani and Kapichira.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
SBS® Tanks is a leading provider of innovative water security solutions with offices in Southern Africa, East and West Africa, the USA and an...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Supplier & Distributor of the Widest Range of Accurate & Easy-to-Use Alcohol Breathalysers
VISIT SHOWROOM
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
