Date Of Article: 3/26/2003
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Manufacturers irked by Escom
By: Ephraim Munthali
Manufacturers said on Wednesday the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi Limited (Escom) has failed to live up to expectations and is not providing power on priority as pledged. Manufacturers Association of Malawi (MAM) vice president Maheshi Kotecha said in an interview that Escom should have consulted the manufacturers first before coming up with the schedules. “Most residential areas have power almost all the time but we are only getting five and a half hours a day, sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon. Why can’t Escom give power to the residential areas during the night and distribute more to manufactures during the day?” said Kotecha. Kotecha said the best way to solve the problem is for the power utility company to call for a meeting with all stakeholders to get their input on scheduling instead of imposing programmes on them. “We [manufactures] have been discussing it and we are ready to meet Escom to discuss how best to tackle this problem. What is worsening the situation is that up to now we are in the dark as to when the situation will normalise,” he said. Kotecha, who is managing director of dry cell manufacturer Nzeru Radio, said his company has now been forced to work during weekends in order to meet targets and satisfy suppliers. He added that this is making the company lose a lot of money as the workers are paid overtime for the weekends. The bursting of a water pipe two weeks ago at Escom’s Nkula B Power Station caused floods that submerged all the power generating machines, reducing Escom’s total power out put from 240 megawatts to 140 against a total demand of about 200 megawatts. Soon after the crisis, Escom executives called for a press conference where they appealed for calm but failed to say when the situation would be rectified. Chief Executive Douwe Van Wyk told journalists that the power utility company will ensure that adequate power is supplied its industrial customers, including critical social service areas such as hospitals first to avoid throwing business into turmoil. And in a press statement yesterday, Escom said it had over the past few days failed to stick to the load shedding schedule because of an influx of trash released by a contractor working at Liwonde Barrage. “This resulted in frequent shut down of machines and hence more power rationing resulting in Escom failing to comply with power rationing programme. The contractor has since stopped and the situation is expected to normalise,” it said. The statement also said that the restoration programme has reached an advanced stage with the first machine expected to star generating power by the first week of April while the second machine will be ready at the end of the following week. “By the end of the second week of April, the current power rationing will have been reduced by around 60 percent. With all the work at power stations completed, the situation is expected to normalise by May 2003,” it added.
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