In what Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter yesterday described as the “central nervous system” of Malta’s future electricity distribution system, Investments, Industry and IT minister Austin Gatt yesterday inaugurated an eight-kilometre tunnel linking the Marsa distribution centre to the Delimara power station.
The tunnel, which is also Malta’s longest, was e9.3 million in the making. The 132kV cabling linking the two installations, meanwhile, cost no less than Lm150 (e350) per metre. With four cables running along the eight-kilometre stretch, the rough cost of the high voltage cables is estimated at Lm4,800,000 (e11.2 million).
Journalists were yesterday taken down the length of the tunnel, which stands five metres high and four metres wide. Stopping in mid-tunnel, Dr Gatt described the work as having been “absolutely necessary” given the projected growth of Malta’s power consumption. Demand for electricity has increased by no less than 23 per cent over the last eight years alone.
The tunnelling work, he said, was “impressive”, citing the fact that it had been completely Maltese-made and that no one had been injured despite years of gruelling underground work.
The tunnel, which runs between 20 and 40 metres underground, was described by Dr Gatt as a crucial stretch in the road to closing the Marsa power station in 2013, with the Delimara power station, which is to be Malta’s central power generating installation, now being able to supply the islands.
The tunnel has branches linking it to the Zejtun and Marsascala distribution centres, the latter of which is to eventually link to the SmartCity project. The Marsascala link is already up and running, while the rest of the operation is expected to be completely switched on by the year’s end.
The network also includes a five-kilometre tunnel between Santa Venera and Mosta, a 1.5 kilometre tunnel between Delimara and Marsascala, and two one kilometre stretches between Msida and San Gwann and between Tarxien and Kirkop.
Another one kilometre tunnel is at present being constructed between Santa Venera and Msida, while a further six kilometres of tunnels are planned for various localities around the islands.
Over the coming four years, the Enemalta Corporation is planning to set up six more distribution centres estimated at e56 million, in preparation for the planned link to the European power grid through Sicily, which is expected to cost e280 million.
The main tunnel, Ing. Tranter explained yesterday, had been chosen for the cables as it enabled Malta to run the expensive cables in a practically straight line all the way to Delimara, with the cabling costing more than the actual tunnel itself.
If the pricey cables had been laid under the roads as per the usual practice, large additional costs would have been incurred given the extra cabling that would have been required for such a winding route. The underground route, additionally, provided extra security of the power lines, which are in future to supply the whole of the island.
Dr Gatt added that the entire project had been undertaken in the friendliest way possible, with no digging up of roads, no disturbances on the surface and with all material excavated being recycled by the contractors and reused for paving inside the tunnel and in other areas.
More than 40 per cent of the tunnel’s cost resulted from an impasse contractors encountered in an area beneath Zejtun and Tas-Silg, Marsaxlokk, where immense boulders, previously thought to have been solid rock were found. The entire stretch had to be reinforced with concrete before drilling could continue. The mere 500-metre stretch took two years to complete at an agonising pace of one to two metres per day.
The underground network system allows for regular maintenance without causing any inconvenience on the streets as well as for a faster identification of faults and their repairs.