Malawi ponders nuclear power

By Wahard Betha

Minister of Energy Newton Kambala says he is considering plans to initiate the development of nuclear energy as part of diversification of energy sources to deal with power interruptions and blackouts which are having a knock-on effect on the growth of the country’s economic sectors.

Nuclear is produced through enrichment of uranium and Malawi has the Kayelekera Uranium Mine in Karonga, which is being operated by ASX-listed Lotus Resources, and a number of sites with uranium anomalies.

In an exclusive interview with Mining and Trade Review, Kambala said government is pushing for diversification of power sources because the country’s power crisis is as a result of overdependence on the hydro power from the lone source, Shire River.

He said hydro power generation is prone to natural fundamental vulnerabilities largely from the climate change effects including drought and flooding which greatly affects production.

 “We are exploring nuclear as a possibility in Malawi electricity generation and several companies have expressed interest in this,” he said.

Government is also working on diversifying sources of power to renewable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and waste to energy.

Kambala said government committed a couple of Solar Independent Power Producer (IPPs) which would have come on stream by April 2020 but failed due to complications related to the Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions.

He said in the medium and long term, Government has signed PPAs for IPPs committed to supply power from various sources such as wind, coal, and geothermal sources.

Government is also preparing to build interconnectors with Mozambique and Zambia in order to be able to tap power from the neighboring countries, the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP) and Eastern Power Pool (EAPP) when the Songwe River Power Generation project is finalized.

Kambala, nonetheless, said the energy diversification drive will not absolutely do away with hydro power as government plans to source more stable power from the planned Kholombidzo and Mpatamanga projects which will be supported by environmental protection initiatives started during the United States of America (USA) funded Millennium Challenge Corporation power project.”

He also disclosed that currently there is Shire Environmental Protection Trust, a body which ensures that the catchment area of the river is conserved to avoid excessive silting.

Kambala said the weeds problem that blocks power generating machines almost every year is being managed by the country’s power generating company Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) through the EGENCO harvesters at Liwonde in Balaka district.

He said: “The hydro source still remains a feature in the Country’s Power Plans because we have lots of potential sites across the country.”

“Accordingly, Government will in the medium to long term implement additional hydro projects on other rivers such as Fufu and Songwe rivers,” he said.

Kambala said government has embarked on a campaign to encourage mutual participation of the IPPs who would bring along their own financing for the power projects in the country.

He said: “These IPPs will go into carefully negotiated contracts with government through Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for the benefit of the sector and the nation. Government now encourages the use of private financing in addition to the public finance sources.”

“We will continue to go into partnerships with the private energy companies or financiers for the development of the strategic power plants. Government is already currently developing the Mpatamanga Power Plant in the PPP format.”

The Minister said government intends to structure more large power generation projects in a financing model similar to that of Mpatamanga Power Plant which involves bringing on board strategic financial partners from the private sector.

“Government is looking at the short, medium and long term measures of improving the power supply to the general public and to the industry in particular,” he said.

Kambala said in the short term the country will continue to rely on the emergency solution of generators to fill the generation gap from hydro sources while it is monitoring diversification programs for delivery.

On the issue of political influence which has all along affected operations of state owned companies such as Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) and EGENCO, Kambala said government will ensure that the companies have capable professionals to follow applicable laws, policies and guidelines.

He said: “As a Minister, I will be engaging Board of Directors for parastatals in the Energy Sector to ensure that they understand clearly government expectations and that they will be held liable for the performance of the Institutions.”

“The Board of Directors will have to commit to the performance of their companies and they will be appraised against clearly laid down Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).”

The Minister hailed ESCOM for the campaign conducted against illegal electricity connections which has resulted in the arrests of the culprits.

Kambala, however, pointed out that most of the illegal connections were done due to the long waiting time before being connected by ESCOM, and said that his Ministry already instructed the body to ensure that all applications for connections are cleared to cut off the demand for the services.

Besides ensuring fairly quick electricity connections to customers after application, the Minister is also pushing for improved response time to faults, and improved customer care at Escom.

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