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| Business |
| Cama says power crisis wake-up call |
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by
Ayam Maeresa, 19 March 2003
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Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) executive director John Kapito said Wednesday the power crisis that has hit the local electricity company should be the wake up call to government to start seeking other alternative sources of power in the region.
Kapito said it was now evident that the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi’s (Escom), which is grappling with a major crisis after flooding water crippled its power station at Nkula B station last week, cannot cope with eventualities.
“We should accept that generating power from water has failed us,” said Kapito. “And it’s now time for both government and consumers should raise the loudest alarm.”
He said the power cuts the public is experiencing because of power rationing were costly both to industries and consumers. He said power rationing will increase the cost of producing goods as manufacturers resort to use gensets for their operations.
Escom, whose generation capacity has been reduced to 140 megawatts from 240 megawatts, is finding it tough to meet a demand of 200 megawatts.
He said government should seriously think about connecting to alternative power sources such as from Cabora Bassa hydro power station in Mozambique given the consequences of power failures on investment.
“We have had monkeys, silt and debris stories and now this. One fears for what will come next,” said Kapito.
But Escom chief executive Douwe van Wyk said last week that the region’s interconnection concept, whose aim is to link up power grids in the 14-member Southern African Development Community (Sadc) to enable countries help each other in times of need, is just a pipe dream.
Power authorities in the region have discussed since 1992 how best they can link up their grids but the concept has taken a slow pace towards implementation.
“We have been pushing very hard for interconnection...in fact if that was in place, the country wouldn’t have noticed [the crisis]. Unfortunately at this stage it is purely on theoretical stage,” said van Wyk.
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