Liwonde power station is a 350 MW coal power station in Machinga, Malawi. It is operated by Jindal Power Ltd. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 438k homes (estimated). It ranks #3 of 10 Malawi power plants by installed capacity. In context, coal supplies about 0.0% of Malawi's electricity; the national grid averages 55 gCO₂/kWh (95.6% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id GEM_coa_liwonde_malaw.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and fuel fields on this page are source-record values from the upstream open dataset. They are useful for identification and ranking, but they have not been upgraded to a 2026 registry/GEM-location verified value.
capacity: GEM GCPT; fuel: GEM GCPT
At 350 MW, Liwonde power station is around the median coal plant in Malawi (350 MW). Its current lifecycle status is “Shelved” — so it is not yet, or no longer, generating at full output. Coal plants burn pulverised coal to raise high-pressure steam for a turbine; they run as baseload but are the most carbon-intensive mainstream source and the first targeted for retirement or efficiency retrofits.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Jindal Power Ltd.
This coal plant burns coal to raise high-pressure steam that spins a turbine-generator. It sits in a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) — Southern Hemisphere, latitude 15.1°S — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Climate zone & typical temperatures: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid).
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a moderately corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C3 — Medium), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #3 largest coal power plant of 5 in Malawi by capacity.
Malawi has 5 coal power plants in this dataset, together about 4,120 MW of capacity.
Coordinates -15.066667, 35.233333 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Liwonde power station is a 350 MW coal power plant in Machinga, Malawi.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 438,000 homes (estimated).
Liwonde power station is operated by Jindal Power Ltd.
