EGENCO RESTORES KAPICHIRA
EGENCO RESTORES KAPICHIRA
On Wednesday, 10 May 2023, at exactly 17:03 hours, the update from the Generation Control Centre (GCC) read, “Kapichira G2 synchronized to the grid at 16:24hrs… This means we have all four machines available and on load at kapichira…”
Long at last, after more than 13 months, Kapichira Power Station was fully back into operation.
Kapichira Power Station has been out of operation since 24th January 2022, after its dam structures were severely damaged by Cyclone Ana, taking 129.6 Megawatts (MW), about 23% of the country’s power capacity, away from the grid.
When the first two machines from the Power Station were restored on 5 April 2023, EGENCO Chief Executive Officer, William Liabunya, was speechless to describe how it felt.
“When the first machine came back online yesterday, people here at Kapichira and across the whole EGENCO were filled with joy – we danced, ululated and others even shed tears. We couldn’t contain it, having delivered what Malawians have been expecting for a long time.” Said Liabunya.
Now that all four power generating machines from the Station have been recommissioned, the 129.6MW has been restored to the national grid.
Following the restoration of Kapichira, Liabunya said elsewhere that the power scarcity problems that the country has been experiencing will now be a thing of the past.
“Now that we are generating sufficient power, the country will forget about load shedding.” Said Liabunya in an interview with Times Television on Saturday, 8 April 2023.
Although Kapichira Power Station has been out for more than a year, it has taken EGENCO three months to bring back power generation as actual restoration works started in December 2022. So far, rehabilitation works at the Station have costed the Company ten billion Malawi Kwacha.
