| Project Detail |
The development objective of the project is to increase access to electricity in Malawi.
Project Components
Component 1: Grid electrification (US$105 million IDA Credit)
27. Grid densification/extension. This component will finance cost-effective, priority investments in
grid electrification by providing electricity supply to households living in close proximity to an existing
distribution infrastructure leveraging on the geospatial analysis to maximize the number of connections
under the financing. Specifically, the component will finance LV extensions, service drops, and
prepayment meters. Some of the new connections may also require reinforcing hardware elements of the
supplying MV feeder for ensuring quality and reliability of supply for new connections. The project will
also support the elimination of connection barriers due to unaffordable internal wiring costs by providing
ready boards to low-income households that cannot afford internal wiring costs.
28. Demand-side management. This project will also support the GoM’s efforts in introducing
energy-efficient appliances, and include the targeted distribution of free energy-efficient light emitting
diode (LED) bulbs to enhance the affordability and reduce household electricity consumption. This will
save consumers the cost of procuring compact fluorescent lamps or incandescent bulbs of wattage
ranging between 20 W and 100 W. Each household will receive 2–3 LED bulbs of 7 W each, and through
this initiative, household electricity consumption (particularly for low-income households) will be reduced
by about 20 percent.
29. Project selection methodology. According to the selection methodology developed by ESCOM,
project areas will be identified on the basis of clusters of potential customers within 500 m of a service
transformer. Each cluster point will be linked to a service transformer and feeder, to gauge the number
of connected customers per cluster point, transformer, and feeder using ESCOM meter data. The potential
load per cluster point will be determined using household density and associated After Diversity Maximum
Demand (ADMD). The impact of this load on the MV network will be determined through a load flow
analysis while a simple LV feeder model will be used to check LV feeder voltages and loading. If the
network has the capacity to supply the additional customers, the quantity of material and associated costs
will be determined using design indicators based on the area density. The list of projects will be prioritized
based on cost per connection and added to the current list of backlog projects (of currently 26,919
customers). The final list will be a combination of new and backlog projects. The proposed methodology
is summarized in Figure 4. ...etc |
