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The Consumers Association of Malawi (Cama) has alleged that the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) bought fault power generating machines, hence the shutting down of Kapichira II Power Plant.
In March this year, the Corporation also closed the same power plant for 28 days to repair the same machines.
And this time it has closed for 17 days begging from October 10 through to October 27.
“We suspect they bought faulty machines and this not healthy to the country’s economy.
“Malawians also being charged highly for the services which are not reliable,” said John Kapito, Cama Executive Director.
However Escom Director of Distribution and Customer Services, Peter Mtonda argued that the machines needed to undergo maintenance before the defects liability period wraps up.
The major defects are shaft seal, cooling water piping and machine turbine control panels, said Mtonda.
“One machine will operate at a time while the other is switched off, meaning there will be 32 megawatts only at a time.
“Considering the negative impact the outage could have on our customers, the Corporation initiated negotiations with the contractor to explore possibilities of reducing the outage period and hence the settling for 17 days,” said Mtonda.
Escom is said to have bought the two power generating machines at $55 million and are currently under a warrant period of one year which expires in December.
