Meeting the Demand of Power through Alternative Power Sources

The Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi proudly proclaimed that it provides power everyday all day long in its vision statement which it has since been forced to change. In the background of its vision the opponents to this vision statement claimed that the frequent power outages did not warrant the existence of this statement.
This was perhaps true albeit that a vision statement should point to a future state that an organization wants to be at, and ESCOM was only pointing to this state. A vision can also be a state which may never be attained, but has to be strived for.
ESCOM faces a power demand of 360 Mega Watts and is only able to meet this demand with 240 Mega Watts hence the need for load shedding. With Malawi, being classified as the second largest growing economy, this demand on electricity is only going to grow leading into more power shedding and thus further away from ESCOM’s vision.
The demand for power on ESCOM also leads to other administrative issues, one of which is late connection of Power for different projects. An ESCOM applications officer in Zomba, pointed out that it takes up to 2 months in order to have power connected. This might sound worse, but I have heard, stories of people waiting up to 1 year and even beyond without connections. While most people are worried with this situation some have decided not to stay idle and have resorted to using solar energy in the absence of ESCOM power. This is mainly being used for household power. With the economic boom (2nd largest growing economy in the world), it suggests that there will be demand for industrial power. This means that the power has to be harnessed from somewhere somehow. Explored options have been: Interconnection to Mozambique : Deemed unsustainable because of high costs and donor dependence.
Use of power saving devices : Energy saving light bulbs, recently reduced. They are still more expensive despite the removal of duty on these bulbs.
Increasing capacity of Kapachira power plant – this is work in progress, by the time that this is completed, there will still be more demand than ESCOM can supply. (Making ESCOM still king in energy business)
The demand for power makes it evident that ESCOM will not meet its vision even after the options above. What is needed is power to the people. I don’t mean deregulating energy market, because this can see organizations such as ENRON emerge. Rather, the solution that people have discovered in the name of solar should be encouraged. In order to encourage this Solar energy devices should have their cost further reduced by removal of import hurdles. In addition to this, alternative power sources should be an available power option for most households. This will definitely reduce the power demand on ESCOM and hence balancing the power supply. Maybe other green power (in addition to hydro) will make ESCOM reach its vision.