Minister of Energy Dr Jean Mathanga has pledged closer government collaboration with the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) to improve electricity reliability, as the utility steps up preparations for rainy-season faults and seeks additional power from private generators.
Mathanga made the remarks on Wednesday at Escom’s Chichiri Power Station in Blantyre, where she followed up on actions agreed with the corporation at an earlier meeting and assessed measures being taken to improve service delivery.
During the visit, the minister toured Escom’s National Control Centre and National Contact Centre, where she took calls from customers to understand how electricity complaints are received and handled.
She acknowledged challenges facing Escom’s fault response teams, particularly limited transport, but said the corporation would introduce a new transport arrangement in November to improve its ability to respond to faults and provide other services.
“We know Escom has a limited fleet to respond to faults. But I am glad to report that in November we will be launching an innovative transport mode for our teams, which they will use to respond to faults and offer other services,” said Mathanga.
The minister said reliable electricity was essential to Malawi’s economic growth and industrialisation ambitions under Malawi 2063.
She acknowledged that available electricity remained below national demand, saying the immediate priority was to distribute the available supply fairly while the country worked towards finalising power-trading agreements under the Mozambique-Malawi (MOMA) interconnector arrangement.
“While the power available is still below demand, the priority is to share it fairly across the country while we wait to finalise trading terms agreements under MOMA, which will take out the burden of low supply,” she said.
Mathanga also highlighted net-metering as another avenue for increasing electricity available on the national grid without waiting for the construction of new power generation plants.
The framework, which the government plans to launch next month, will allow customers who generate their own electricity to feed surplus power into the national grid.
According to the minister, a pilot programme has identified 34 self-generators expected to contribute approximately three megawatts (MW) to the grid by next month.
She urged Escom to identify more potential participants and accelerate their connections, including before the formal launch of the framework.
“I encourage Escom to find more self-generators and to connect them quickly because if we can get 3MW from just 34 customers, how many megawatts can we bring into the grid if we connect more self-generators?
“Therefore, I expect you to speed up connection of these self-generators even before we launch the framework next month,” she said.
The minister’s visit also comes as Escom prepares for the rainy season, when heavy rainfall, fallen power poles, vandalism and equipment failures can disrupt electricity supply.
Escom has reportedly stocked up on spare parts and is inspecting its infrastructure, including power lines and poles, to improve preparedness for weather-related faults.
Mathanga said the government would continue engaging the utility to address operational challenges and improve service delivery to households, businesses and public institutions.
The measures come amid persistent electricity supply constraints, with the government seeking to improve distribution, strengthen fault response and explore additional sources of power as it pursues its industrialisation and economic development objectives.
