Energy
MERA gets tough on electrical installers
January 19, 2020 / Wahard Betha
The Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) has come up with tougher guidelines and conditional requirements for electrical installers.
The conditional requirements include: age; knowledge; adequacy of work; premises, instruments and tools and; permit renewal.
Board Chairperson for MERA Joseph Bvumbwe said during a stakeholders’ consultative workshop on newly developed guidelines for electrical installations inspectors in Lilongwe that the new conditions will act as a guide in the process of appointing electrical installations inspectors and how they will be conducting inspections.
He said the new tougher conditions will ensure that the installers are well prepared before booking for interviews to get legal certificates.
“The guidelines will provide the scope of work of the inspectors through the classification provided in Section 5 of the Electricity (amendment) By-laws of 2018 and also provide procedures for inspection of electrical installations,” Bvumbwe said.
He explained that the guidelines will cover all types of installations including existing and new installations, and modifications and replacement of electrical equipment.
MERA Senior Electricity Specialist Shaibu Mludi said MERA came up with the new conditions following a survey conducted in the country’s major cities, which discovered abnormalities in electrical installations.
He said though all targeted installers were above recommended age (18), about 50 percent were found lacking knowledge about installation, while the average of 73 percent had no protective equipment.
“Most installers do not have an operating workshop, and those installers with overwhelming jobs do stay in a cubicle without suitable tool boxes and instruments to conduct tests,” Mludi said.
He also revealed that some installers were found with forged permits, operating without registering, non- committal to renewal of permits and some selling the registration to non -registered installers.
Mludi said minimum passing rate for the installers during practical performance assessment during inspections is 75 percent and warned that the Authority will de-register installers performing below 75 percent.
“MERA will impose penalties on installers who forge or sell stamps to uncertified electrical installers and that it will also organize installers committee to sensitize members on the dangers of forging and selling stamps to non-licensed installers,” he said. Electrical Contractors Association of Malawi President Michael Gadama admitted the presence of the
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