‘Malta just like Pakistan’ says MP as Enemalta sheds load by disconnecting power

The Nationalist Party’s spokesperson for energy, Mark Anthony Sammut, has hit out at the Labour administration’s response to the three-day consecutive power cuts.

He said the national utility company Enemalta, which is responsible for distribution, was resorting to the extreme measure of ‘load shedding’ by intentionally disconnecting various areas from electricity to prevent the system from collapsing.

Naxxar, Mosta, and Ħaż-Żebbuġ bore the brunt of the night-time power cuts, leading to disbelief at the consecutive nature of the blackouts during the hot days of the summer. “This means that electricity service was being provided on a rotation basis. One moment, I have electricity, and the next, you have it. Just as in Pakistan,” Sammut said.

“The minister should stop underestimating the intelligence of the people and stop blaming the weather. Cables a few feet underground do not feel the heat on the surface unless lava flows through the streets,” Sammut, an engineer by profession, said.

“The heat that may exist in the cables is generated by the load of current passing through the system, caused by the increased use of electricity as people try to keep cool during hot weather.”
Sammut said Malta’s rapid population growth had generated increased demand for energy without a suitable infrastructure to handle it.

“With all the boasting about investment in energy made to prevent such problems, we’ve ended up with corrupt system where, in bad weather there is no electricity because we rely on LNG tankers, and in hot weather, there is no electricity because the network cannot handle it. And when we have electricity, it is with unstable or slightly low voltage...”

Enemalta CEO Jonathan Cardona blamed cable faults for the power outages, and not overloads. “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 said cables that might have been laid badly could lead to failure.