Delimara power station to continue using HFO

The Delimara power station can be immediately converted to cleaner but more-expensive diesel because its engines can be powered by both HFO and diesel without any conversion costs.

However, the government will not be switching the Delimara power station from heavy fuel oil to less-polluting diesel in the coming two-year period - not until the new gas-powered infrastructure is in place.

During the electoral campaign, Joseph Muscat described the Delimara power station as a "cancer and asthma factory" after a grandmother of nine spoke in Marsaxlokk during a Labour event, saying eight of her grandchildren had asthma and the ninth, three years old, had lung cancer.

But if things go according to Labour's plan, the cancer and asthma factory may remain until as late as 2015, that is, when Labour's energy project is completed. Both the conversion of Delimara to gas and the new private gas-fired power station and terminal will be finished then.

Asked by MaltaToday whether the new government intends to convert the existing Delimara plant to diesel, a spokesperson for Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi curtly replied, "The government's policy is to switch from heavy fuel oil to gas in the short term."

The PL's electoral programme did not feature any commitment to shift to diesel in the period before the new gas infrastructure is in place, but in the past Joseph Muscat had pledged to shift to diesel.

In December 2011 the Labour Party issued a statement urging MEPA to choose gasoil instead of HFO. The statement was issued regarding MEPA's decision allowing the use of HFO when issuing an Integrated Pollution Prevention & Control (IPPC) permit for the new Delimara power plant extension. On that occasion Labour said it was "reiterating its electoral promise that a new Labour government would immediately commence the process to convert the Delimara plant firstly to use gasoil and subsequently to gas."