Malawians should expect extended blackouts of up to 10 hours on every Sunday beginning September 25 until October 30, 2022.

According to a press statement released by the management of Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO), during the stated period there will be outages of Nkula A and B to allow for the installation of new fine screens that went missing.

Following the works, 135.1 megawatts out of the total currently available hydropower capacity of 252.55 megawatts will not be available for supply to the national grid on the Sundays for the stated period.

Reads part of the statement: There will be outages of Nkula A and B on every Sunday beginning 25th September until 30th October this year for 10 hours on each Sunday starting from 7am to 5pm to allow for installation of new fine screens.

“This follows the findings by our divers on 30th July this year, when they discovered missing trash screens.”

The statement further said the new fine trash screens installation process will require draining the dam at Nkula power station intake and consequently completely shutting down Nkula A and B to allow to allow for safe working environment for its engineers, welders and divers.

The company added that it wants to finish the works before the onset of the rain season and therefore have the tunnel and machine turbines protected from trash and debris including logs and rolling rocks.

In order to mitigate the impact of Nkula A and B outage, EGENCO will continue to run all available hydropower plants at Tedzani and Wovwe Power Stations including available diesel generators.