The transmission network has a total of 43 substations at 400kV,132kV, and 66 kV voltage rating. These substations are made up of primary equipment and secondary equipment composed of control and protection Panels as detailed in appendix 2.
Substations has a total of 80 transformers, composed of 2- 400 kV transformers, 24- 132kV transformers and 54- 66KV transformers as detailed in appendix 2. Substations also has compensating equipment ranging from reactors to capacitor banks. Rating capacity of reactors at the moment is around 100MVAR at 400kV and the rating capacity of capacitor banks is around 10MVAR at 33kV and 14MVAR at 11kV.
In transmission substations there are some transformers that have also outlived their useful lives and they were installed some 40 years ago hence they need to be replaced to reduce risk of failure. At the moment some of the obsolete transformers are being replaced like under JICA funded Project for Lilongwe transformers and 2 power Transformers at Chichiri substation.
