The Electricity Generation of Malawi (Egenco) has disclosed that a commission of inquiry has been instituted to investigate circumstances that are leading to persistent power blackouts.

Whilst describing the situation as abnormal, Egenco’s Director of Finance Delano Ulanje has told a joint parliamentary committee in Lilongwe that the investigations will be concluded in the seven days time.

“We experienced a system shutdown once again at 07:37am today Sunday, August 21, 2022, due to a technical problem, resulting in loss of power supply to most parts of the country.

This is an abnormal situation and as such, ESCOM and EGENCO have jointly instituted a team to investigate the cause of these frequent system shutdowns,” reads a communique issued by Escom on Sunday.

In an interview, Assistant Public Relations Officer at Egenco Marvin Mchenga said composition of the Inquiry will include officials from both Escom and Ministry of Energy.

He said: “There are a number of players operators in the system, as Egenco we are on the generation side, but there also Escom on the transmission and distribution side.

The aim is to sit down together players to establish exactly what is really going on, where the problem is, if it’s the issue of instability in the system, where is it really coming from.”

Reacting to the development, the Committee’s co-chairperson Welani Chilenga said the joint Committee will be waiting to be furnished with a detailed report on the situation citing that oral responses given by Egenco are not satisfactory.

“The answers they have given us a joint committee we are not satisfied, however we have agreed with them that they are going to come up with a comprehensive us within seven days from now.