From Water to Wire in the Warm Heart of Africa: Malawi’s Mpatamanga Hydropower Project

This week, our team traveled to Blantyre, Malawi’s second largest city and commercial capital, to explore the exciting progress of the Mpatamanga Hydro Power Project—an initiative that will significantly boost energy generation in one of the world’s most energy-deprived countries, all while being innovative, sustainable, and environmentally conscious.

Once completed, Mpatamanga will generate 358.5 MW of clean energy, with 301 MW being dispatchable or peaking power. This is where the project’s innovation shines—Mpatamanga will be able to produce most of its electricity during periods of highest demand, when people need it most, and when it is most valuable for the power purchaser, in this case ESCOM Malawi Limited , making the plant flexible and highly efficient, like a massive (over 2,400 MWh!) natural battery.

Located about 35 km west of Blantyre on the scenic Shire River, the project has taken careful steps to be fully environmentally and socially sustainable. The commitment to environmental stewardship led to significant changes in the original design to prevent potential downstream impacts, including on the nearby Majete Wildlife Reserve. 

It’s encouraging to see progress, particularly with the publication of the draft core environmental and social impact studies by The World Bank , now open for public feedback—a critical milestone toward World Bank board approval for important grant funding for this project and, ultimately, reaching financial close.

To better appreciate the scope of Mpatamanga, we also visited the Kapichira Hydroelectric Power Station, which is about 2.5 times smaller. Lessons learned from Kapichira are being incorporated into Mpatamanga’s design.

Mpatamanga has been the Government of Malawi’s top energy generation priority for many years.

Power Africa is proud to be providing transaction advisory support to the Government as it has been co-developing this transformative project through an innovative public private partnership with the IFC - International Finance Corporation , and the competitively sourced sponsor consortium of EDF and Scatec ASA .

Honored to have Principal Secretary for the Ministry of Energy Engineer Alfonso Chikuni and USAID Mission Director Pamela Fessenden join our Deputy Coordinator Ted Lawrence on this visit.

Special thanks to everyone from the project development team, ESCOM, Electricity Generation Company (Malawi) Limited, and Mpatamanga Hydro Power Limited for hosting us and sharing their insights.

Mpatamanga promises to ignite Malawi’s industries, boost its mining sector, and support the Government's efforts to expand access to electricity.

It’s a true example of a co-developed, country-led initiative that will improve the lives of millions of Malawians.