Malawi’s Minister of Energy, Jean Sendeza Mathanga, has urged state-owned power utility Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) Ltd to play a leading role in the country’s energy transition and ensure that strategic investments improve the reliability of electricity supply.
Mathanga said ESCOM remained central to Malawi’s industrialisation agenda and must ensure that investments such as the 20MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) translate into better service delivery.
“My message to ESCOM is that you must stand at the helm of this transformation. As the enabler of our industrial dreams, ESCOM’s role is to ensure that the wheels of our factories never stop turning and the lights in our hospitals never dim,” Mathanga said during the commissioning of the battery energy storage system in Lilongwe on Friday.
The minister commended ESCOM for improvements in electricity supply but urged the utility to continue working towards eliminating load shedding.
“We have suffered enough, we have promised enough, it is time to deliver. Let’s achieve zero load shedding,” she said.
Mathanga also commended the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), JIVO, Lahmeyer International, the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (MERA) and other stakeholders for their role in delivering Malawi’s first utility-scale battery energy storage system.
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