Miriam Dalli meets Sicilian President over second interconnector plans

The data gathering process is expected to commence in the coming months

Energy minister Miriam Dalli with Sicilian President Sebastiano Musumeci (Photo: DOI)
Energy minister Miriam Dalli with Sicilian President Sebastiano Musumeci (Photo: DOI)

Energy Minister Miriam Dalli met with Sicilian President Sebastiano Musumeci in a bilateral meeting over Malta’s second interconnector.

Dalli led a Maltese delegation at the Palazzo Orléans, where discussions were held on the electrical interconnector project, namely the doubling of the current link from Malta to Ragusa.

She explained that Malta was exploring different routes for both onshore and offshore parts to improve the security of supply.

In a statement, government said the process would be entailing environmental and design studies both onshore and offshore, with the data collection set to commence in the coming months.

“Strengthening the integration of Malta’s energy supply network to the European grid is necessary to secure supply for the growing energy demand over the medium-to-long term”, Dalli said.

She further explained that a reinforced interconnection would allow for ingress of more renewables as grid resilience and spinning reserve will be improved enabling Malta to reach its environmental targets towards achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.

“The creation of a second interconnector is the best way to respond to the increase in electricity demand that the country will have in the coming years, and for this reason we ask for the collaboration of the regional government to accelerate this process”, Dalli said.