Malta came practically to a standstill yesterday morning following an explosion at the Marsa power station.

At 6.15am one of the main switchgear suffered an unidentified fault that resulted in the explosion which caused both the Marsa and Delimara power stations to trip. The switchgear is an essential part of the infrastructure that connects both power stations.

The fault happened at a time when the demand for electricity was reaching a peak as Malta was waking up. The night shift on duty at Marsa at the time was to be replaced at 7am.

Automatic security procedures were immediately activated leading to the national outage. The automatic intervention was sufficient to control the resulting fire. Despite this, the Enemalta fire fighting team were on site, supported by other staff from the civil protection department. An ambulance was called on stand by but luckily there were no casualties.

Meanwhile, the police advised the public to drive cautiously as traffic lights in various areas were not working properly and drivers were instructed to follow police directions.

Although preliminary investigation shows that the occurrence was due to a technical fault, the possibility of foul play is not being excluded. Police and police cars were noted at the Enemalta site as it was being considered as a scene of crime.

Enemalta Corporation chairperson Alex J. Tranter told a news conference that the corporation is not in a position to evaluate the damage caused by the switchgear failure. He added that a magisterial inquiry and police investigations are under way to determine what caused the power breakdown.

The incident took place a day after Enemalta’s chairman was interviewed on the PBS programme Dissett. Yesterday afternoon the prime minister was also to reply to the opposition’s criticism of the budget estimates. A few weeks ago the hefty salaries of Enemalta’s senior officials were published on the Sunday newspaper Kullhadd and an email detailing these salaries has been doing the rounds in the past days.

The last time a similar incident happened was in June, coincidentally, another day when Parliament was discussing the corporation’s financial estimates. Enemalta had stated then that the main cause of the failure was identified as an anomalous high temperature due to a sensor failure. The rest of the generating units had tripped moments later as a result of the fault.

Ing. Tranter said that procedures to restore electricity distribution across the country started within an hour of the incident, with the electricity route being diverted to avoid the damaged switchgear. It took a while until electricity stability was established because restarting the generation process is quite taxing.

The chairperson did not comment on reports about the Enemalta power outage coinciding with discussions on the corporation in sections of the media or in parliament. He said he hoped that the police and magisterial inquiries would establish the facts.

In a statement released yesterday afternoon, the General Workers Union (GWU) expressed its surprise at the comments reported to have been made by Ing. Tranter after the explosion, and described them as in poor taste.

Through his comments, the GWU said, he seemed to be implying that the workers had been involved in some sabotage plan, and in the meantime the police investigation and magisterial inquiry had barely started.

The GWU said Ing. Tranter should have rather started by thanking the workers for their immediate action, which prevented the problem from getting out of control and returned the situation to normal in the shortest time possible.

Through his premature comments, the GWU said, Ing. Tranter had prejudiced the investigations as he had already made it clear that he felt this might be a premeditated act, notwithstanding the fact that the plant in question was ancient and it was all too easy for such things to happen.

The GWU reiterated its thanks to the workers who had worked efficiently to solve this problem, which might even have put their own health in danger. Power was restored to Mater Dei Hospital, parts of Valletta, Marsascala, Bulebel, Cospicua, Fgura, Santa Lucija, Gudja, Ghaxaq and parts of Zejtun, Tarxien and Cottonera by 7.30am. All Malta was powered 9.30am.