The Kapichira Power Station is a

hydroelectric power Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

plant at the

Kapachira Falls Kapachira Falls are waterfalls in Malawi. They lie on the lower Shire River near the town of Chikwawa and the Majete Wildlife Reserve. The Kapichira Hydroelectric Power Station was constructed above the falls to provide hydroelectricty. During h ...

on the

Shire River The Shire is the largest river in Malawi. It is the only outlet of Lake Malawi and flows into the Zambezi River in Mozambique. Its length is . The upper Shire River issues from Lake Malawi and runs approximately before it enters shallow Lake Malo ...

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...

. It has an installed capacity of , enough to power over 86,000 homes, with four generating sets. The power station was developed in stages, with the first phase involving the installation of the first two 32 megawatts-generating turbines. Phase I of the power station was officially opened in September 2000. In January 2014, in a ceremony attended by the

president of Malawi The president of the Republic of Malawi ( ny, Mtsogoleri wa Dziko la Malawi) is the head of state and head of government of Malawi. The president leads the executive branch of the Government of Malawi and is the commander-in-chief of the Malawia ...

at that time,

Joyce Banda Joyce Hilda Banda (née Ntila; born 12 April 1950) is a Malawian politician who was the President of Malawi from 7 April 2012 to 31 May 2014. Banda took office as President following the sudden death of President Bingu wa Mutharika. She is the ...

, the second phase of the Kapichira hydropower project was switched on, doubling the hitherto 64 megawatts to the maximum capacity of 128 megawatts.

Location

The power station is located across the

, in

Chikwawa District Chikwawa is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Chikwawa. The district covers an area of 4,755 km² and has a population of 356,682. The district lies in a malaria endemic area in Africa and has recently been the ta ...

, in the Southern Region of Malawi, approximately , by road, south-west of

Blantyre Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...

, the financial capital and largest city in the country. The geographical coordinates of this power station are: 15°53'45.0"S, 34°45'14.0"E (Latitude:-15.895833; Longitude:34.753889).

Overview

Each unit operates at a nominal head of and discharge of . The power station was built in two phases, with the first phase completed in 2000. The second phase with the same capacity of as the first phase, was completed in 2014 and was commissioned on 31 January 2018.

Construction

The first phase of the power station was built with funds borrowed from several international development partners, including (a)

KfW The KfW, which together with its subsidiaries DEG, KfW IPEX-Bank and FuB forms the KfW Bankengruppe ("banking group"), is a German state-owned investment bank, investment and Development finance institution, development bank, based in Frankfurt ...

(b) the

European Investment Bank The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the European Union's investment bank and is owned by the EU Member States. It is one of the largest supranational lenders in the world. The EIB finances and invests both through equity and debt solutions ...

Commonwealth Development Corporation British International Investment, (formerly CDC Group plc, Commonwealth Development Corporation, and Colonial Development Corporation) is the development finance institution of the UK government. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office ...

and (d) the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

(e) the

Netherlands Development Finance Company FMO ( nl, Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden N.V.) is a Dutch development bank structured as a bilateral private-sector international financial institution based in the Hague, the Netherlands. FMO manages funds for the ...

. The development partners jointly loaned US$131.1 million and the government of Malawi invested US$21.9 million, for a total of US$153 million. The second phase was contracted to

China Gezhouba Group Corporation China Gezhouba Group Company Limited () is a Chinese construction and engineering company based in Wuhan, Hubei. As of 2014, the company is the 33rd largest contractor by revenue in the world. The major shareholder of the company (40.8%) is state ...

(CGGC) and included the installation of two new turbines, each of capacity generation of 32 megawatts. Work was completed in January 2014.

Storm damage and repairs

On 24 January 2022, Tropical Storm Ana struck the dam and power station, causing catastrophic damage, leading to closure of the installation. This led to the loss of an estimated 130 MW of generation capacity, equivalent to about 30 percent of national output. In June 2022,

Lazarus Chakwera Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera (born 5 April 1955) is a Malawian theologian and politician who has served as President of Malawi since June 2020. In addition to the Presidency, he also serves as Defence minister, Minister of Defence per Malawian cons ...

, the president of Malawi, announced that the

had lent Malawi MWK:60 billion (US$60 million) to repair and rehabilitate Kapichira Hydroelectric Power Station. Following these repairs, it is expected that the new generation capacity will be 135 megawatts.

References

External links