Procurement Lessons from Malawi’s
cleaner, battery-energy storage project



A cyclone wiped out a third of the country’s hydropower capacity, while leased diesel generators—once peaking units—were taken offline in line with the country’s cleaner energy pathway.  

Malawi was bringing more solar power onto the grid but instability, with frequent nationwide outages disrupted homes, businesses, and essential services. 

To fix this, Malawi turned to a new solution: a large-scale battery energy storage system. Backed by our Alliance, and implemented by the state utility ESCOM, the project will install a 20MW/30MWh battery system in Lilongwe. The system will store electricity when supply is high and release it when demand peaks, helping balance the grid and support greater use of renewable energy. 

The project structure demonstrates a deliberate collaboration between ESCOM, the Energy Regulator, Government of Malawi USAID’s Power Africa, and the country’s Presidential Delivery Unit, building on works of partners like JICA to achieve project cost optimization.

A procurement process backed by political will and local legislation to achieve efficiency resulted in successful procurement within budget, timely contract award approvals, offering valuable insights for replicating BESS tender processes, bidder requirements, and risk mitigation in developing countries, emphasizing the importance of collaboration, thorough planning, and the will for public institutions to do things right.

Lessons for other countries looking to use BESS to secure their own energy supplies:

• Bidders must submit complete documentation (like bid security and
  warranties) to qualify.
• Procuring entities should provide early notice of tenders and enough time for quality proposals.
• Independent reviews of the preferred bids against technical standards are essential before signing contracts.
• Procuring entities must conduct gap assessment of the preferred bidder’s proposal in light of tender documents and respective grid code compliance for power projects.

For more information please contact | felix.khembo@energyalliance.org

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