Interconnector failure on Sicily side caused electricity outage, Enemalta says

A failure on the Sicily side of the interconnector led to the electricity outage in Malta on Saturday night, Enemalta said.

The company said the interruption occurred at 7:38pm and the cause still has to be determined.

Enemalta said that at the time the fault occurred, the locality in Sicily was experiencing “severe weather conditions”.

The interconnector supplies electricity to Malta from the European grid. The subsea high voltage cable between Marina di Ragusa in Sicily and Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq, Malta, has a capacity of 200MW.

Enemalta said that the interruption of the supply forced an automatic shutdown of the distribution system in Malta in what is known as load shedding.

This happens to prevent damage from being caused to the energy generating systems at Delimara.

“As soon as the electricity supply was interrupted, and ensuring that no damage had been caused to the electrical systems dependant on gas, Enemalta’s technicians increased the local generation of electricity and within eight minutes, electricity was once again being distributed on the network,” Enemalta said.

It took a total of 40 minutes for all consumers to have their electricity supply restored, the company added.

It apologised for the inconvenience and noted that the automated systems created to protect the power generation plants were activated to ensure no damage to the supply.

Energy Minister Miriam Dalli thanked Enemalta employees for their prompt action in a Facebook post.

Several localities in Malta and all of Gozo were hit by the electricity outage on Saturday evening, while others reported a temporary dip in voltage.