Power outages due to cable faults, not overloads – Enemalta CEO

Cable faults are to blame for recent power outages across Malta, Enemalta CEO Jonathan Cardona has confirmed.

In a technical briefing with journalists, Cardona explained that while electricity consumption has increased in recent days, recent power outages have generally been a result of faults developed in underground cables.

“The faults are not an issue of overloads,” he explained. “Consumption has been increasing, with a new record of 604MW at peak hours. This is the first time that output went beyond 600MW.”

But the national system is capable of providing well over 600MW. “We can reach 830MW, so there’s a good margin.”

Cardona said that soaring temperatures have caused roads to heat up, and this heat is bringing out certain latent defects in underground cables.

“In this circumstance, temperatures increased in a short amount of time, so the faults also came out in a short amount of time,” he said.

Cardona added that cables can develop faults for several reasons. “The cables might have been laid badly. In such a case, nothing would happen at first, but the issue will develop over time.”

“Cables can fail like any other thing. For example, just because you have a high-grade car, doesn’t mean you won’t get a puncture.”

Cardona said Enemalta employees are working at full speed to ensure that consumers are resupplied energy in a short amount of time.

Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said a lot of the damage incurred requires digging to fix the cables. “That’s why there’s a certain length of time without power in some localities.”

She acknowledged that many localities like Naxxar, Mosta and neighbouring areas spent a lot of time without power. However, she said there are works in this area on a new distribution centre.

Meanwhile in Żurrieq, where consumers have spent a long time without power, Dalli said that reinforcement works are being carried out in the area.

Reinforcement works are also taking place in Mosta. “This reinforcement work, and the works on a new distribution centre, will allow us to prepare for such instances.”

In Żebbuġ, a fault in the transformer meant some residents were left without power for 24 hours.

Enemalta chairman Ryan Fava said that the company’s call centre will be strengthened in the coming days so that more people can assist clients impacted by power outages.

“This is so we can give as much information as possible to those affected by power outages and give a clearer picture of the fault and how long they will be left without power.”

Financial compensation

Regarding compensation, Fava said that the Enemalta compensation scheme will be available to consumers impacted by the power outages.

However, Fava explained that this scheme largely applies to fixed assets. Consumers whose food went bad in the fridge or freezer would not be able to get compensation for this.

Any appliances damaged as a result of the power outages are included in the scheme, but will be subject to certain criteria to ensure that the damage was sustained because of the outage.