The comparisons that the National Audit Office drew between the new gas-fired power station and the interconnector were as a result of a “misinterpretation”, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said on Friday.

Asked about the shortcomings pointed out by the NAO in its report on the new Delimara power station, the Prime Minister explained that this misinterpretation is based on a number of factors, not least the fact that the NAO did not take into consideration the capital expenditure required to construct the interconnector, like it did in the case of the power station.

Muscat also pointed out that the electricity rate for the interconnector was wrongly taken as a constant figure throughout the day, even though the cost would fluctuate according to the time of day.

He said that it also does not take into consideration the fact that the power station was in an open cycle period, comparing it to using choke to start an old petrol car – “you’re using more petrol, but you need to so to warm up the engine”.

He noted that after taking all these aspects into consideration, the power station as more advantageous than the interconnector.

 

Asked about the shortcomings on due diligence that the NAO report flagged, wherein it found that there was no level playing field, Electrogas did not satisfy all requirements and the process itself might have changed on a bidder-by-bidder basis, Muscat said that the government could accept that there would be criticism on such “technical” shortcomings, but emphasised that the auditor had concluded that despite these “discrepancies”, the end result – that is the awarding of the power station contract to the Electrogas consortium – would not have changed. 

Muscat also took aim at the Opposition’s calculations, which said that the country is paying €200 million more than it should, saying that in actual fact the figure based on what the report said would have meant that there would be €98 million paid extra, and not the €200 million that the Opposition is claiming.  Muscat also challenged this extra costs however, citing the reasons explained above as an explanation to this figure.