President Dr Lazarus Chakwera says the Mozambique-Malawi (MOMA) Power Transmission 400kV Interconnector Project will now add 120 Megawatts to the country’s national grid following the revision of the initial agreement of 50MW.
Chakwera gave an update on MOMA when he delivered his State of the Nation Address on Friday, 9th February 2024. The Malawi government, World Bank and KfW are financing the project.
“So we will proceed to add 361 Megawatts through our investment in the Mpatamanga Hydro Power Plant. We will proceed to add 120 Megawatts through the Mozambique-Malawi Interconnector Project following further negotiations and revision of the Power Purchasing Agreement to increase the importation of electricity from the initial 50 Megawatts,” he said.
He said his government was committed to investing in the energy sector, as it is the catalyst for the country’s development.
“That electricity means wealth creation for the young people 28 running salons and printing shops, and the ones selling refrigerated goods. And now that we are here, we will not stop, for our target has always been to increase our power generation capacity to 1000 Megawatts,” Chakwera said.
ESCOM’s Acting Senior Project Manager for MOMA, Leonard Machonjo, two weeks ago at a tree-planting ceremony involving Project Affected Persons in Neno, said progress for construction works was at 48 percent.
The Malawi and Mozambique governments are, through ESCOM and EDM, constructing a 218 km transmission line through Mwanza, Neno and Balaka for the project to bring 120 megawatts from Mozambique and other Southern Africa Power Pool Association members to boost power supply in the country.