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Malawi explores the possibilities of mutually beneficial deals in the power sector with its neighbours and the Southern Africa Power Pool (Sapp) to make the country one of the region’s centres of electricity connectivity while potentially kicking out persistent blackouts.
Malawi explores the possibilities of mutually beneficial deals in the power sector with its neighbours and the Southern Africa Power Pool (Sapp) to make the country one of the region’s centres of electricity connectivity while potentially kicking out persistent blackouts.
Malawi Government is about to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tanzania for a joint hydropower generation project on the Songwe River which borders the two countries. The near fruition of the deals comes against a background of decades of bureaucratic foot-dragging to have the projects take off, stated Ibrahim Matola, Minister of Energy, Malawi Government, In another deal, Malawi is also expected to expedite the power interconnector agreement and Zoa Falls generation deal with Mozambique as well as begin to position itself to tap into Sapp where it will benefit from the grouping’s surplus energy. Further, Malawi is also on course to lock up the power trading deal with Zambia during the year.
The MoU with Tanzania will trigger the commencement of activities on the Songwe River Basin Development Programme (SRBDP) whose electricity component is projected to produce 180 megawatts (MW) of power the two countries will share. The SRBDP, set to birth Lower Songwe Dam and Hydro Plant, water supply and irrigation systems, rural electrification, middle dam, and other social infrastructure, will cost both governments an estimated $829 million. Both countries are confident that the African Development Bank (AfDB), which supports regional integration projects and helped to finance the feasibility study, will come on board to fund it, but the two countries are also open to other financiers.
Meanwhile, a new Tanzania-Malawi (Tama) power inter-connector is in the works that, if actualised, could pull Malawi into the Eastern Africa Power Pool (EAPP), allowing the country to benefit from two power pools, including SAPP, and potentially becoming a bridge to the two cross-border electricity and grid interconnection groupings. EAPP, comprising Ethiopia, Egypt, Burundi, Rwanda, Djibouti, Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Libya, boast generation capacity of at least 32 300 megawatts. On the other hand, SAPP, whose members include South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, grinds out around 58 400 megawatts.
The Malawi-Mozambique Interconnector is on course to kick-start after being commissioned in November 2021. This is a crucial step towards integrating the regional power network and achieving deeper integration not just in Southern Africa, but with those countries in the eastern and northern parts of the continent.
The Mozambique-Malawi Interconnection Project involves the construction of a 218 km, 400kV high voltage transmission line from Matambo in Tete Province in central Mozambique, past the Malawian border to Phombeya in Balaka District, at a cost of $154 million. The interconnector will allow Malawi to access the regional SAPP market through Mozambique’s interconnected grid with Zimbabwe (Songo-Bindira) and South Africa (Songo-Apollo) while also enabling other countries to tap Malawi’s power surpluses.
Regional Integration of the power sector makes economic sense in the Sadc context as it results in overall savings of more than $42 billion in investment and other costs. Malawi Government is in a race against time to increase electricity generation to about 1 000 MW by 2025 at a time World Bank data shows 17.7 million people lack access. Further, the government is also facing an ambitious target to ensure that 50 per cent of the country’s population has access to electricity from the national grid. Currently, about 14 per cent have access. Currently, Electricity Generation Company has a total installed generation capacity of 441.95MW, with 390.55MW from hydropower plants and 51.4MW from standby diesel power plants.
Read Also:
https://trendsnafrica.com/malawi-exploring-rice-exports-to-gambia/
https://trendsnafrica.com/world-bank-loan-to-rehabilitate-damaged-hydro-project-of-malawi/
The Songwe River Basin lies southwest of Tanzania and north of Malawi, covering an area of more than 4 200 kilometres. Endowed with fertile alluvial soil and abundant water resources, the basin is home to over 341 000 people on both sides of the border who rely on it for their livelihood. The electricity projected to be generated on the river is expected to boost the national grids of both nations and reach at least 60 per cent of the population around it, 80 per cent of whom are the rural poor with a per capita income of just $386.
