Energy Efficient Lighting Project - Malawi (2010)

The supply and demand scenarios in the Malawi Electricity Sector show a trend of significant capacity shortage due to an increase in demand averaging 7% per year. Currently, the system average peak load is around 295 MW, while the available capacity is around 255 MW which equates to a power shortage of 14%. In addition, there are around 13,000 customers waiting to be connected and ESCOM estimates the total demand to be around 334 MW. Load shedding and power outages are used extensively to ration power.