The recent power cuts that have occurred over the past few days were the result of an unconnected series of faults and have nothing to do with the electricity cable that will supply power to Mater Dei, explained Enemalta chairman Alexander Tranter yesterday.

Ing. Tranter said he had called the press conference to give the correct facts behind the power cuts and also apologised for the inconvenience caused.

Over the past three days there have been black outs in the north of Malta, particularly in the Sliema and Paceville area, and in Tarxien and the Cottonera areas.

On Friday 15 June, at around 7.20pm, boiler eight at the Marsa Power Station tripped following the operation of a safety valve on a feed water heater.

“The boiler feeds a turbine with steam, that in turn generates the electricity supply. There was a power surge and, as a safety precaution, it turned off,” explained Ing. Tranter.

Power was restored at around 9pm.

At around 5.40am on Monday morning, once again boiler 8 tripped following boiler water oscillations, causing the boiler to trip and resulting in power cuts in the central areas of Malta until 7.50am.

At about 8.30pm another fault at Marsa Power Station boiler 8 caused the boiler to trip resulting in outages in the south and central areas of the island. Electricity supply was restored by 9.30pm.

Ing. Tranter explained that it is very rare that the same boiler trips twice in 24 hours and he excluded any possibility that the boiler is defective.

Later in the day on Monday, at about 1pm, a fault on a cable at Marsa South Distribution Centre caused blackouts in Marsa, Qormi and Valletta. The supply to most of these areas was restored some two hours later, at around 3.45pm, and to all the areas by 5pm.

However, there also were two cable faults that occurred at around 1pm on Monday on an 11kV feeder at Ghadira Bay in Mellieha, causing power cuts in the surrounding areas.

One of these faults, said Ing. Tranter, was caused by a contractor with the Agriculture Department who damaged a power cable next to the Ghadira nature reserve.

Furthermore, he added, the same contractor damaged the same power cable in Mellieha again yesterday, causing another power blackout.

“It is very strange that the same contractor makes the same mistake twice. We have informed the police and are waiting accordingly,” he said.

On Monday evening, at around 11.50pm, there was a fault on one of the 33kV feeders to Paceville. This resulted in a voltage surge that was felt throughout the system and which caused a number of boilers to trip resulting in power cuts in the south and central areas. The fault was isolated and supply was restored to the affected areas at around 2.30am. After several hours, Enemalta personnel finally managed to locate the fault on the Regional Road on the bridge overlooking Valley Road.

Early on Tuesday morning, at around 2am, there was a fault on an 11kV feeder at Kordin that caused power cuts in Tarxien, Marsascala and Zejtun. Supply was restored to most areas by 6am.

At 9.30am the same morning, the power supply to Valletta was interrupted due to an overload. It was restored by 10.40am.

Soon after, at 11am, an 11kV feeder at Sliema developed a fault and tripped. Enemalta explained that even though a number of substations were re-energised, some substations will remain without a power supply until the cable is repaired.

At 11.50am on Tuesday, a transformer at Tarxien distribution centre tripped, leaving the south without electricity. The supply was restored by 12.50pm.

All the above incidents, with the exception of the cable that was twice damaged by the contractor, are unrelated, explained Ing. Tranter.

“It is important to keep in mind that whenever a fault occurs at a power station, we physically have to send our people there to see what has gone wrong,” he said.

Over the next two years, Ing. Tranter explained, Enemalta will be investing in SCADA – a remote monitoring system that will immediately alert the control room where and when a fault has taken place.

“When there is a cable fault, a lot of time and energy is spent looking for the actual location of the fault – don’t forget that these cables are underground,” he said.

The SCADA system will reduce the time period between when the fault takes place and when the power is restored.

The chairman said that this week, due to the high temperatures that have resulted in a higher use of air conditioners, the power demand has increased to 360MW, from 330MW last week.

However, he added, this time last year, the demand was already 370MW.

Ing. Tranter pointed out that Enemalta is able to supply the demand for at least the next three years and added that, within the next few weeks, it will be issuing a tender that will increase the capacity produced by Delimara by 100 to 120MW.

Over the next few years, there will be an increased demand for electricity, especially when one keeps in mind projects such as SmartCity and Mater Dei,” he said.

“Hopefully, this tender will be awarded by the end of this year, and the new section should be completed in about 24 months,” he explained.

The Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) sent a letter to Malta Resources Authority chairman Austin Walker yesterday, requesting an urgent meeting to discuss the various problems that had been caused by the recent power failures.

The GRTU pointed out that the electricity failures are causing “quantifiable damages to a large cross section of GRTU members.”

The letter was also sent to Investment, Industry and Information Technology Minister Austin Gatt and Resources and Infrastructure Minister Ninu Zammit.