The photo is sourced from jcmpower.ca
The project will alleviate power shortage in the region. As the Privacy Shield program estimates, Malawi has a 60 MW capacity deficit against the background of stable operation of all available sources. The problem got worse in February 2022 when 128 MW Kapichira Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP) was temporarily shut down. To alleviate the energy deficit, Malawi is going to start importing electricity from Mozambique through a special transmission line, construction of which began in April 2022. In addition, last spring local electricity company ESCOM launched Mulosa, a 3.4 MW Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP), which will provide power to a bit less than 3.000 households in the south of the country.
The use of the energy storage system in the JCM and InfraCo project will allow hedging the risks of power shortages under adverse weather conditions. The amount of daylight hours has a seasonal variation: the sunny weather in the capital of Malawi lasts, at least, 240 hours per month in the dry season, i.e. May to September, but its average monthly duration does not exceed 145 hours from December to February, according to the Climates to Travel. At the same time, rainfall is seen on average for 14 days in January, and 12 days- in December and February.
The capacity of the renewable power plants in Malawi was 528 MW in 2021, among them: hydropower – 374 MW, solar panels – 142 MW and biopower plants 12 MW, as derived from the IRENA data. A record increase in photovoltaic power from 82 MW to 142 MW last year was achieved by JCM Power, which commissioned a 60 MW solar power plant in the Salima district, Central Malawi.
