New power firm to join market March

By Chimwemwe Mangazi:

Mulanje Hydro (MHL) plans to start producing 8.2 megawatts (mw) of electricity in March at its Ruo-Ndiza power project in Mulanje district.

The company has invested $16 million in setting up a hydro-electric power project on the Ruo and Ndiza rivers.

MHL is one of the energy investors registered in 2017 by the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (MITC) to bring $25 million (about K18.5 billion) investment through the hydro power project.

MHL Managing Director, Ian McKersie, said the first phase of the project would be completed by March 2019 and that they would be supplying the electricity to the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) through the national grid.

“We started implementation in June 2018 and, according to our plan, we would like to complete by December 2019. We have scheduled to commission the first power generating unit at Ndiza in March and the other unit at Ruo will be commissioned in August this year,” McKersie said.

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MITC Public Relations Manager, Deliby Chimbalu, said the development speaks volumes of how essential her organisation has been in mobilising investors to come to Malawi.

“As MITC, we are happy that the investor has made tremendous progress in implementation of this electricity generation project. This will go a long way in mitigating the challenges the energy sector is facing,” Chimbalu said.

The investor has signed a Power Purchase Agreement with Escom.