Enemalta in technical press briefing

06.08.2021

For the second time in a row during the same week, demand for electricity reached a new record peak, yesterday measuring 565MW.

During a technical briefing for journalists, Enemalta CEO Jason Vella explained that the demand for electricity well surpassed the pre-pandemic 2019 demand levels, when the peak demand stood at 510MW.

This, Ing Vella said, confirmed that thanks to the investments made in its energy mix, Enemalta had enough capacity to meet the demand.

Moreover, in the past seven years, Enemalta invested €130 million in its distribution system as part of its action programme to strengthen the system. Ing Vella announced that Enemalta will be accelerating this programme, both in terms of investment and maintenance of the distribution system.

Speaking about the recent power cuts in certain localities, including parts of Marsaskala and Mosta, Ing Vella said the faults in the distribution system developed due to the strong heat impacting the infrastructure coupled with the increase in demand.

He explained how it was primarily parts of Marsascala and Mosta that had a long-term power outage as a result of multiple faults on underground cables.

Ing Vella thanked Enemalta’s engineers and technicians for their relentless work. Enemalta in fact had some 180 workers on different shifts so that the company can respond immediately to the emergency. Mitigation measures include the setting up of generators where possible.

Ing Vella said that overall, interruptions were addressed quickly as a result of the investments carried out by Enemalta over the past years. Almost 400 substations have been automated so that any damages to the system can be handled automatically, through Marsa’s control room, by switching to alternative cables.

Ing Vella said this investment made it possible for more than 70% of the cases to have electricity back in under an hour. Additionally, he stressed a drop in power cuts and waiting time for electricity to be restored.

He stressed how the result of investments made by Enemalta in the distribution system – including in the new distribution centres at Paceville, St Andrew’s, Manoel Island and Xewkija – was evident.

Annually, Enemalta invests in an average of 40 new substations, while projects on 50 new substations are currently underway to continue strenghtening the distribution system and providing greater stability.