[ad_1]
As Malawians grapple with hours of daily power outages, Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) has revealed the real culprit behind the darkness: a critical supply shortfall of up to 40 megawatts during peak hours–against a national demand of 190MW.
Speaking during the 2025 Public Relations Day commemoration in Blantyre, Escom CEO Kamkwamba Kumwenda said the utility is being forced to shed load–cutting power in cycles of three and a half hours–to prevent the national grid from crashing.
“Most machines are off during the day, but come evening when families start cooking and using appliances, demand shoots up,” explained Kumwenda. “That’s when the deficit bites the most.”
The peak demand hours–5:30am to 7:30am and 4:30pm to 8:30pm–have become the hardest hit, as households and industries alike compete for limited power.
The pressure, Kumwenda added, is worsened by full-capacity operations in energy-intensive sectors like sugar, tea, tobacco, and irrigation farming–typical of this season.
But hope flickers on the horizon. Kumwenda assured that the load shedding is temporary, as Malawi is set to tap 50MW from Mozambique by the end of 2025 through the long-awaited Malawi-Mozambique Power Interconnection Project.
“Once that line is complete, this challenge will be history,” he said confidently.
Originally planned to supply 120MW, the Mozambique deal was scaled down to 50MW due to earlier delays caused by post-election conflicts near Matambo Substation in Tete Province. Still, the $4.5 million/month agreement is seen as a much-needed boost.
Consumers Association of Malawi executive director John Kapito welcomed the development, saying the extra supply will bring a “noticeable difference” in easing blackouts.
Yet even with that addition, Malawi remains far from its ambitious 1,000MW by 2025 target. Currently, Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) can only produce 444.67MW, most of it from aging hydro facilities.
As the country waits for new connections and reforms, Malawians must endure the frustrating cycle of blackouts–for now, a nation quite literally left in the dark.
[ad_2]
Source link
