Malawi is now at par with its fellow neighboring countries in the transmission of electricity having connected to a 400KV source last Sunday from Phombeya substation in Balaka.

The Southern Africa Power Pool (SPP) requires member countries to be connected to a power point of such a magnitude so they trade in energy.

Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) Senior Transmission Engineer Leonard Machonjo said the new connection, which terminates at Nkhoma, would pave the way for power improvement projects.

The line will supply energy to the central and northern regions.

“We have completed connecting 132KV lines from Nkula B – Golomoti number two and three feeding the substation to a 173 kilometer line to Nkhoma in the Central Region and Bwengu Substation in Mzimba in the Northern Region,” he said.

Adding: “Commissioning of the line opens a super-highway or a landing area for big projects such as the Mozambique Power Interconnector and the Kam’mwamba coal-fired plant”.

Machonjo said connecting to a high voltage source would also help reduce electricity loses which were at an estimated 5.6 percent.

“This will result in improved revenue for Escom as more customers will now have chance to have electricity connections,” he said.

The Escom Senior Transmission Engineer was however quick to say that this does not mean power blackouts would reduce as that would only change if more power is generated.

The Phombeya substation was built by Larsen & Turbro of India under the $350.7 million Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC).