Government denies BWSC engine damage despite reports

The Finance Ministry had vehemently denied that a diesel engine within BWSC's power station extension project has developed serious problems and has been switched off.

This is in spite of the fact that MaltaToday has been informed by several sources that Engine Six has developed serious issues with its Water Cooling system.

Should government confirm that Boiler Six is effectively out of action, the admission would be a further indictment of the BWSC technology, as well as of government's choice to opt for the controversial tender.

MaltaToday is informed that fresh problems have emerged over the past few days at the BWSC plant, and that the plant's troubles are not limited to the damage sustained by the steam turbine which government announced a few days ago.

According to MaltaToday's sources, one of the major problems plaguing the power station extension project is the diesel engines' Water Cooling Systems.

MaltaToday is informed that the most recent issue to plague the project is a fault within Engine Six's Water Cooling System, which caused the engine to lose water, forcing it to be switched off.

The problems in Engine Six however come in the wake of earlier problems that afflicted Engine One and Engine Eight.

While MaltaToday is informed that problems in Engine One were contained, the Engine Eight is however still losing water.

This means that, out of a total of eight diesel engines, three (One, Six, and Eight) suffered or are suffering from technical issues, and one (Six) had to be deactivated for the time being.

So far, government has announced that the only issue that could potentially delay the Delimara power station hand-over (scheduled originally for 7 November) is the damaged steam turbine.

This, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech had announced a few days ago, could mean a delay in the handing-over of the plant of up to six months. At the time, he had insisted that the rest of the plant is fully-functional.

Industry insiders who spoke to MaltaToday maintain that information regarding the state of the BWSC power station extension project is tightly controlled by Enemalta.

However Enemalta engineers are also reportedly disappointed that many problems identified many months ago have not yet been resolved by BWSC.