"We are interconnecting with Malawi, at 400 Kv (...). It is a line that will be completed this year and will allow energy to flow to the region," Marcelino Gildo Alberto told Lusa on the sidelines of the Coordinating Council meeting of the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, which is taking place in the district of Mossuril, in the province of Nampula, northern Mozambique. In total, Mozambique currently has three connections with countries in the region to which it also sells energy, namely South Africa, Zimbabwe and Eswatini. In addition to a new line with Malawi, the EDM chairman continued, the country has a project in the pipeline to build a connection line with Zambia, which already consumes energy from Mozambique through the "Southern African Power Pool" system, having already completed the feasibility studies. "At the moment, we are looking for financing to make the interconnection with Zambia," said Marcelino Gildo Alberto, noting that the objective is to connect the country to all members of the southern region. "Last year alone, 22% of the volume of energy produced was for export. This is beneficial because it guarantees foreign exchange for the country," added Marcelino Gildo Alberto. The creation of new lines to transport electricity will be accompanied by new energy generation projects, among which the Temane Thermal Power Plant, located in the province of Inhambane and which will produce 450 MW, stands out. "At the beginning of 2025, we will have 450 MW available to be consumed domestically and also regionally," he stressed. Although production efforts are progressing at a good pace, the EDM chairman continued, infrastructure vandalism remains the main challenge, with the public company losing 30 million meticais (475 thousand euros) in infrastructure replacement last year alone. "Vandalism is a major scourge for our company (...). They remove the copper and aluminum that are in these infrastructures and sell them on the market, we believe that the material is sold on the South African market. Even with regard to transformers, sometimes they disconnect the Transmission Stations (PT) and remove their entire core, which is made of copper," he lamented. Despite this challenge, according to the official, the expansion of the electricity grid in Mozambique has good prospects, with the company having registered almost four thousand new connections last year alone. "This number represents a historical milestone and raised the bar for the energy access rate (...). Of the 135 administrative posts that were still to be connected, we have already connected 61, leaving 74 administrative posts and, despite the financial freezes we have had, there is a great effort to try to conclude with this milestone," concluded the EDM chairman. Under the motto "For a transformation and local use of mineral and energy resources for Sustainable Development", the coordinating council meeting in Nampula ends today, after two days of meetings between various officials from the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy and chairmen of several public companies. Also Read: Electricity exported by Mozambique grew 9% in 2023 (Portuguese version)