Malta is exporting electricity in historic first

Malta imported almost a quarter of its electricity requirements last year via the interconnector, which also served as an export channel, figures out today show.

However, dependence on the interconnector for electricity dropped by almost 30%, with Malta importing 631 GWh in 2018, according to the National Statistics Office.

In 2017, Malta imported 897GWh via the interconnector to Sicily.

But the figures also show that in September 2017, the interconnector started being used by Enemalta to export electricity to the European grid.

The NSO said that almost 36,000 MWh were exported in 2017, dropping to almost 11,000 MWh in 2018. This is the first time in Malta’s history that the country is exporting electricity.

Production of renewable energy continued to increase, and was almost exclusively through photovoltaic panels.

In 2018, renewable energy sources produced almost 199,000 MWh of electricity, of which 95% came from solar panels.

This represents a 165% increase on electricity generated from renewable sources in 2014.

The bulk of Malta’s electricity came from its power stations at Delimara – the Electrogas plant, the BWSC plant, and Enemalta’s own diesel plant.

The NSO said that the power plants produced 1.8 million MWh of electricity, which accounts for 68% of all electricity production in 2018.

The months of August and September registered the highest electricity demand at 465 MW and 460 MW respectively during 2018.