The contractor or consortium to be in charge of building the electricity interconnection line between Mozambique and Malawi should be known next May, paving the way for the start of works in the second half of this year.
The expectation is from the director of Electrification and Projects at Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM), who guarantees that the work is in the conclusive phase of contractor selection.
Daniel Guambe said that the public company is working towards, until May, having the matter related to the constructors of the line and substations concluded.
If the work progresses in the second half of the year, as planned, Mozambique’s energy exports to Malawi should begin next year, according to the official schedule already announced.
The line that, concretely, will start from Tete to Phombeya (in Malawi), has been conceived more than 20 years ago and will be the first to interconnect Malawi with the Southern African electric grid, and will allow Mozambique to raise the levels of energy sales to the region.
The Mozambique-Malawi electrical interconnection project, at 400 kilo volts (Kv), is estimated at 127 million dollars, of which nearly 100 million will be applied in the national territory.
The project will include 145 kilometers of transmission line in Mozambican territory and 75 complementary kilometers on the Malawian side.
The Mozambique-Malawi electrical interconnection project, at 400 kilo volts (Kv), is estimated at $127 million, of which close to $100 million will be applied in the national territory.
Technical agreements, most notably power purchase and sale agreements involving EDM and ESCOM, were signed in April 2019 in Lilongwe, Malawi, and since then the parties have been securing the necessary funds for the work.
EDM hopes to use the line to supply electricity to the towns and villages located along its route on national territory.
It should be noted that the intention of Malawi to buy national electricity was formalized in 1998 with the signing of a memorandum, but since then the governments that succeeded in the neighboring country were hesitant to move forward to the construction of infrastructure, which dragged the process to the current stage.
