A project currently underway aimed at connecting Malta to the European electricity grid is gathering steam, with work aimed at determining the appropriate regulatory and operating framework in progress with a view to preparing the project to move from the feasibility to the implementation phase.
The Enemalta Corporation has issued a request for information with a view to garnering a better understanding of the international interconnector market, an Investment, Industry and IT Ministry spokesperson confirmed yesterday.
Enemalta is also moving ahead with in-house studies to verify the cost and feasibility of such a connection, which would run between Sicily and Malta, and is holding meetings with parties concerned including the Malta Resources Authority.
The government, according to the latest update to the National Reform Programme, is working with German consultants Laymeyer International on such preparatory plans, which envisage a 200MVA electricity connection with Sicily.
With electricity generation accounting for 63 per cent of Malta’s greenhouse gas emissions, the initiative will be crucial if Malta is to meet EU climate change directives, as well as the European Commission’s target of achieving a 20 per cent reduction from 1990 carbon dioxide levels.
While the Marsa Power Station is due to close down, Malta is also investigating the possibility of sourcing natural gas as an alternative to the liquid fossil fuels currently in use at the Delimara and Marsa power stations.
An interconnection with Sicily would also be coupled with more irregular sources of energy such as the proposed multi-megawatt offshore wind farm project as well as the generation of electricity from waste – a project already well underway at Maghtab and the surrounding engineered landfills.
The wind farm project would constitute a public-private partnership and the government is assessing replies to a call for expressions of interest in the project, which would have a final capacity of between 75 and 100 megawatts. Nine such replies are being analysed.
Once the offshore wind farm comes into operation, excess green energy generated by the farm could be exported through the grid as a renewable energy source.
Such a grid interconnection is aimed at providing electricity supply security at times when power generated by the offshore wind farm is not available.
The government will be seeking funding from the European Union for both projects.
The connection with the European power grid is integral for the development of the wind farm project.
As the National Reform Programme points out, “An interconnection to the European electrical network is unavoidable for the integration of an intermittent source of energy such as the proposed multi-megawatt offshore wind farm, given the stability issues that would otherwise arise in a small isolated system such as currently in Malta.”