UPDATE ON KAPICHIRA POWER STATION RESTORATION EFFORTS

UPDATE ON KAPICHIRA POWER STATION RESTORATION EFFORTS

Electricity Generation Company (Malawi) Limited (EGENCO) wishes to update the public and all stakeholders on progress made in the power generation restoration efforts at the Kapichira Power Station following destruction of intake dam structure by Cyclone ANA.

1.      RESTORATION PROGRESS

As earlier communicated, Kapichira restoration work will be in two phases:

PHASE 1:

1. ‘Temporarily’ reconstruct a cofferdam around the mouth of the damaged fuse plug and redirect water to the intake to resume power generation.
2. The designers of the cofferdam and contractor for the same have been identified. To cut on time, EGENCO has agreed with the funders, World Bank, once designs are complete, the construction work are expected to last 55 days. In a nutshell, it is expected that by the end of December, power generation will resume at Kapichira.
3. This will ensure that the process to start reconstruction is quickened. It is estimated that it will take about two months to complete the process of   design and review of the cofferdam.
4. Adverts for an independent Project Engineer to help us on Supervision of design and construction phases was done.
5. Since last week, energy experts from World Bank, based in USA and dam experts from Korea are in the country to finalize preparatory works for commencement of reconstruction.
6. Meanwhile administrative arrangements for the projects are almost complete.

PHASE 2:

1. This phase will involve reconstruction of dam structure based on an improved design that will be resilient to the frequent floods the country is experiencing as a result of climate change and catchment area degradation.
2. This work will further involve redesigning of the whole dam structure and spillway gates to make it more resilient.
3. Phase two works will resume immediately after resumption of power generation and is expected to take 36 months.
4. We have not engaged a contractor yet but we expect to engage one through the World Bank.

2.       MINIMIZING THE IMPACT

EGENCO is fully aware of the impact that the outage of Kapichira has had on Malawians and the economy in general and is doing everything possible to mitigate the impact through timely repose to requirement of the available machines in the system, including running available diesel generation units.

The company is also working with stakeholders such as the System and Market Operator (ESCOM) to ensure that we operate a stable generation system, although at times, with the biggest machines in the system out, it has not been possible.

3.       APOLOGY

EGENCO sincerely regrets any inconveniences being caused by the outage of Kapichira Power Station.