Editing Economy of Malawi (section)

===Electricity===
Malawi's sole power supplier is the state owned [[Electricity Supply Commission of Malawi]] (ESCOM), which generates almost all its power from hydroelectric plants along the Shire River. The installed is approximately 351MW.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-malawi-power/malawi-hit-by-blackout-as-falling-dam-levels-drain-hydropower-idUSKBN1E1197|title=Malawi hit by blackout as falling dam levels drain hydropower|date=8 December 2017|work=Reuters|access-date=8 December 2017}}</ref> About 12% of the country's population has access to electricity, according to 2014 World Bank figures.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.ELC.ACCS.ZS?locations=MW|title=Access to electricity (% of population) {{!}} Data|website=data.worldbank.org|language=en-us|access-date=2017-12-08}}</ref>

The country has been suffering from intermittent power outages as a result of an ongoing drought that has halved power output as water levels of the Shire river dropped significantly.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/08/malawi-blackouts-drought-hydro-power|title=Malawi suffers blackouts as drought exposes 98% reliance on hydro power|agency=Agence France-Presse|date=2017-12-08|work=The Guardian|access-date=2017-12-08|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> The river usually generates 300MW of electricity, accounting for 98% of Malawi's total supply. However, the drought reduced that capacity to 160MW, according to ESCOM.<ref name=":1" />