A decade of power failures

Enemalta blames power cuts on another season of record electricity demand

 

The Times of Malta published an article on Saturday quoting an Enemalta spokesperson who blamed power cuts in multiple localities on another summer of record electricity demand.

Soaring temperatures and a resulting spike in power usage are a recurring factor every summer in Malta, but the spokesperson said this latest warm spell put an increased load on the electricity distribution grid, with faults occurring as a result.

The same answer was given last August when the state-owned energy monopoly responded to questions about similar power outages, and we heard it again in August 2020.

In February, Energy Minister Miriam Dalli told the press that Enemalta had earmarked €90 million in infrastructure funding for the next six years, a significant chunk of which would be invested in a new electricity distribution centre in Naxxar and the construction of 250 new substations across Malta.

The fact that the government needs to pump millions of euros into the struggling energy company just to keep it afloat implies much bigger problems within the administration. Enemalta has not published its accounts since 2018, and The Shift reported that its finances have been in the red since 2020, when the company posted a loss of over €30 million.

An analysis of news reports from the last ten years reveals the same seasonal power cuts across multiple localities every year, with no administration taking responsibility for the failure to address them.

The vulnerability of the system to random accidents was exposed when the interconnector between Malta and Sicily was damaged in December 2019 by a ship’s anchor. Power cuts increased significantly over the following year until the damage was repaired.

The Shift has sent questions to Enemalta to find out how many significant power outages have occurred over the past ten years, what improvements have been made to the supply and distribution grid in that same time period, and what the energy supplier is doing to cater for demands that increase each year.

 

                           

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4 Comments
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Out of Curiosity
Out of Curiosity
2 years ago

We can never solve the problem as long as we do not commission a proper study to measure our country’s carrying capacity, before continuing to import cheap labour workers in masses and promoting our country as an attractive destination for mass tourism. This government lacks basics and is also the expert of speculative maneuvers, the degeneration of environment and the main architect who boosted the prices of units in the property market to a point of no return. What a mess of a government.

Mick
Mick
2 years ago

Every year the same old excuses and nothing ever is done about it. Even if they could remedy just some of the faults, they will never get ahead.Most of the cabling, sub stations , overhead wiring has been there since the British left and very little done in pre emptive maintenance. ALL OF IT NEEDS REPLACING YESTERDAY. Basic problem is they neither have the money or the qualified expertise to even begin the overhaul required.
Additionally there are no impact surveys done to assess if they can even accommodate the extra power needed for the outrageous building programme that is the curse of the whole island.
If you are going to use tourists as the basic means of income for the island, then the basics need to be in place to support their time on the island WITHOUT impacting the general population.

We DO NOT HAVE RIGHT NOW sufficient electricity, water, transport, garbage disposal, a clean environment, to support them on a DAILY basis without creating stops, breakdowns, or inconvenience to the people who live here.

It is not going to get better anytime soon as the Government is Mafia orientated and controlled, citizens are only there to pay taxes and vote for who they put up to front their nefarious activities.

THEY NEED TO BE TAKEN DOWN AS WE ARE ROBBING OUR YOUTH AND CREATING ASTRONOMICAL DEBT THAT WILL TAKE GENERATIONS TO GET SETTLED

Francis Said
Francis Said
2 years ago

Bad planning, excessive building, infrastructure old and decrepit, corruption at the highest levels.

john Schembri
john Schembri
2 years ago

Problem was solved with a bucket of water !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOnVbCeBmIM

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