At Bembeke Trading Centre in Dedza District, the silence that follows a power cut is more than an inconvenience.
Welding machines stop, barbershops fall quiet and maize mills stand idle as business owners wait for electricity that may not return until late in the day.
For Daniel Gondwe, a welding operator at the trading centre, the uncertainty has become part of running a business.
“The electricity situation here in Dedza is difficult. Most of the time, we are just sitting idle,” he says.
Gondwe says businesses in Bembeke are already accustomed to scheduled load-shedding, but the situation has become more difficult because of additional outages linked to an overloaded transformer at the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) sub-station in the district.
He recalls that Bembeke recently went for two days without electricity, leaving businesses unable to operate normally.
“You can go to a maize mill, for example, only to find that the electricity is off and then it remains off for the whole day,” says Gondwe.
The consequences stretch beyond lost working hours. For small businesses whose daily earnings depend on production, every day without electricity means income that cannot be recovered.
The problem is also affecting households and other businesses that rely on refrigeration.
A poultry farmer Robert Kalilombe says the electricity situation, which he traces to September 2025, has disrupted businesses that had invested in equipment dependent on reliable power.
Some traders had started making freeze pops while others stored chicken meat in refrigerators. Poultry farmers also rely on incubators to hatch eggs.
“When the electricity situation deteriorates, it seriously disrupts our businesses,” says Kalilombe.
He adds that unreliable power has resulted in eggs failing to hatch in incubators while some households have stopped storing meat because they can no longer depend on refrigerators to keep food safely.
For Kalilombe, the problem is not confined to economic losses. Darkness has also heightened concerns about security.
“When there is no electricity, dealing with thieves becomes difficult,” he says.
Gondwe points to a recent break-in at a shop at Bembeke Trading Centre where thieves removed roofing sheets before entering the premises.
The effects of the power crisis become even more serious when electricity is needed not to run a business, but to keep a patient alive.
At Mtendere Rural Community Hospital, which serves a catchment population of 82 298 people, unreliable electricity is putting additional pressure on an already demanding healthcare environment.
Sister Agatha Chulu, who is in charge of the facility, says power outages can sometimes run from six in the morning until noon while on other occasions, electricity has remained unavailable from six in the morning to six in the evening.
Patients using oxygen concentrators are particularly vulnerable.
“When there is a power outage, we have to switch on the backup generator to ensure that such patients continue receiving oxygen,” explains Chulu.
The hospital usually runs its generator for about three hours. If electricity has not returned by then, patients requiring continuous oxygen support may have to be referred to Dedza District Hospital, adding transport costs for patients and their families.
Chulu says the unreliable supply also affects laboratory services and the storage of blood and some medicines.
The wider health implications concern the Malawi Health Equity Network, whose executive director George Jobe describes reliable electricity as an essential part of healthcare rather than a luxury.
He warns that prolonged interruptions can disrupt emergency care, maternity and newborn services, surgery, laboratories, oxygen supply, blood storage and refrigeration of medicines and vaccines.
“For health facilities, functional generators, solar backup systems and adequate fuel budgets are important,” says Jobe while stressing that backup systems should complement rather than replace reliable electricity from Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom).
The technical problem behind Dedza’s extended outages is linked to growing electricity demand.
Escom chief public relations and communications manager Pilirani Phiri says the transformer overload problem started around November 2025 following increased demand after more residential and commercial customers were connected through projects such as the Malawi Rural Electrification Programme and the Malawi Electricity Access Project.
The Dedza transformer has a rated capacity of five megavolt-amperes (MVA), with a 20 percent allowable overload margin. However, Phiri says peak demand has reached about seven MVA.
When that happens, the transformer protection system trips. Escom then temporarily switches off one feeder to reduce the load, particularly during morning peak hours.
This explains why some customers experience outages beyond the normal load-shedding schedule.
The power utility has been managing the situation through local load management, restoring affected feeders once demand stabilises. It is also installing cooling fans on the transformer to improve cooling and reduce the likelihood of overload-related tripping.
A more permanent solution is being prepared.
Phiri says Escom initially planned to install a 12.5 MVA transformer at Dedza, but continued growth in demand has compelled the utility to identify a larger 15 MVA transformer currently at Chigumula in Blantyre.
“We are now facilitating transportation and installation,” says Phiri.
Once installed and commissioned, the higher-capacity transformer is expected to provide sufficient power for Dedza’s growing electricity demand and eliminate the need for local load management caused by the current transformer overload.
For businesses, however, the consequences of waiting for a lasting solution are already being felt.
Economics Association of Malawi president Bertha Bangara-Chikadza says unreliable electricity affects the entire production chain, from the processing of inputs to the sale of finished products.
She says frequent outages reduce production, increase operating costs and can force businesses to rely on generators and other expensive alternatives.
The additional costs can eventually be passed on to consumers through higher prices, said Bangara-Chikadza, who also teaches economics at University of Malawi in Zomba.
“For small and medium-sized businesses, reduced operating hours can also mean lower income and less capacity to create employment,” she says.
At household level, unreliable electricity can increase the cost of living as families turn to alternative sources of energy.
Bangara-Chikadza argues that the effects extend beyond individual businesses and households, warning that prolonged power disruptions can discourage investment and slow broader economic activity.
She recommends greater adoption of alternative energy sources, including solar, while calling for measures such as tax incentives to make renewable energy equipment more accessible.
Back at Bembeke, Gondwe is less concerned about economic theory than about the working hours disappearing from his calendar.
For someone earning a living through welding, electricity is the means through which work becomes income. When the machines stop, so does that income.
“The impact of these extended blackouts has, therefore, brought our businesses down significantly,” he says.
Kalilombe’s experience is similar. He says people invested in businesses on the assumption that electricity would remain sufficiently reliable to support them.
Now, poultry farmers are struggling with incubators, households are losing the ability to store food and businesses are losing valuable operating hours.
The Dedza experience illustrates a problem that goes beyond scheduled load -shedding. As electricity demand grows, the capacity of infrastructure serving communities must also keep pace.
Meanwhile, Escom is managing the pressure through local load management and temporary technical measures while preparing a larger transformer for the district.
But for residents, traders, farmers and health workers living with the consequences, the issue is immediate.
Every hour without power can mean a machine that cannot run, a business that cannot sell, food that cannot be stored, a patient who may need referral or a household left in darkness.
In Dedza, the wait for a more reliable electricity supply is, therefore, not simply a wait for the lights to come back on.
For many people, it is a wait for the return of ordinary working days, safer nights and the ability to plan their lives around something they once took for granted: electricity.
