Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) has restored power generation at Nkula Power Station, raising available capacity to 367 megawatts (mw) from 232mw and offering some relief after weeks of intensified blackouts.
The country has, for weeks, been experiencing outages which were worsened by the shutdown of power stations for planned maintenance ahead of the rainy season.
The shutting down of Nkula A and B for planned maintenance took 135mw off the national grid on Sunday, forcing Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) to extend load shedding beyond the normal schedule.
Egenco Senior Public Relations Officer Moses Gwaza said the maintenance has now been completed and generation at Nkula A and B has resumed.
“The work that we are doing is very important because it means we now have functional trash-rakes to protect our machines from debris, especially during this rainy season. This ensures we can provide an uninterrupted power supply,” Gwaza said.
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Despite the improvement, Malawi continues to operate with a power deficit, affecting both households and industries that rely on steady electricity for home usage and production. Escom’s latest update shows available capacity at 432.94mw by day and 373.55mw at night.
However, not all is being fed to the grid, as 45mw during the day and 32.4mw at night are held as spinning reserves for system stability.
The utility is forecasting unmet demand of up to 66mw during evening peak hours, prompting continued scheduled load shedding.
In a recent interview, Manufacturers Association of Malawi President Gloria Zimba said persistent blackouts had disrupted production, with some companies halting operations for long hours.
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Recently, Natural Resources, Energy and Mining Minister Jean Mathanga told Parliament that the government was accelerating solar projects to help close the country’s energy gap.
Escom projects unmet demand of 29.51mw during morning peak hours, 4.31mw during midday and 66.06mw during the evening peak—gaps that are being managed through scheduled load shedding.
