The hot and sticky weather which has prevailed in Malta over last weekend and earlier this week resulted in Enemalta registering on Monday afternoon the highest ever demand for electricity in its 30 years of operations.

In a statement, the company said that on Monday at 1pm, the load reached an impressive 434MW, which is 16MW higher than the peak load of 418MW recorded on 26 June this year. The demand was 30MW higher than the 404MW peak reached last year.

Commenting on this high demand, Enemalta chairman Alexander Tranter said that despite the high temperatures and demand, the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity was coping well with the demand and added there was enough spare capacity to cope with all the demand for electricity.

Temperatures soared to 38°C in some localities yesterday. The temperature today is expected to go down somewhat, to 34, and down to 31°C tomorrow and on Friday.

At the weekend, however, the mercury is expected once again to rise to 34°C.

See also ‘Hot spell to ease off towards the end of the week’