Let us start off in a decent tone. The way in which the Marsa power station’s outage was dealt with yesterday, and the subsequent restoration of power was achieved fairly swiftly.

But that is where praise stops. Minister Fenech said, what in his mind was a good political statement. He took the opportunity to remind us all that the Marsa power station is an ageing power plant which needs to be replaced. He said that Malta is looking to extend Delimara and lay down a cable to Sicily. Well… guess what. We know it’s an old power station and we know that it is rickety and that it is on its last legs. But what the minister does not realise is that the statement he made has angered the vast majority of consumers in Malta.

Now, to put this into perspective, we must remember that responsibility for Enemalta has only recently been passed on to Mr Fenech as it was previously assigned to Austin Gatt’s ministry.

Time and time again, Dr Gatt told the consumer (let us not forget we pay for this), that Enemalta has good ratios of technical losses, in the sense that not much power which is generated is lost. The general public was told this time and time again as were the Labour Party, Alternattiva Demokratika and a multitude of journalists who asked over and over again “just how bad are the technical losses”. Dr Gatt assured people that Malta even performed well with other European nations in this regard. It has to be said. Pull the other one.

If a boiler can unexpectedly fail at Marsa, causing another power station (Delimara) to trip because it cannot handle the demands placed on it, then one may deduce that all is not well within Marsa.

And let’s be honest. Equipment does not become outdated and obsolete within months or a year or two, it is a long and ongoing process of deterioration. This makes us believe that all was not told about the state of Marsa over the years and the issue of technical losses is a relevant one.

Does the government have any idea of the anger it incurred on Monday? Here we are, being told that our power plant was efficient and that we do not incur huge technical losses. Then, our bills are hiked up by a massive 29 per cent and we are told: “What can be done? The price of oil is what it is and if you want power you have to pay for it”. Well, it is certainly becoming clearer that the so-called losses which Enemalta incurs in buying raw fuel may not be as massive as they are made out to be. One wonders just how much the consumer will have to fork out for the losses incurred yesterday. Also, another point for the government (and a lot of Maltese private companies) to learn is that when people pay for a product, they expect good service. Yesterday was not good service. It is 2010. We are looking towards vision 2015 and the 2020 goals. Does supper by candlelight figure in that vision at all? Are consumers going to be compensated? A simple apology is not good enough. People are paying massive bills for their water and electricity and a total blackout in a modern European Union country is simply not on. It was not freezing cold on Monday and there were no major public events or any on television. So does a boiler fail for no apparent reason? No, it fails because it is old, not quite reliable and has been used and abused for years. Then we are told to grin and bear it and pay our bills because the cause is the international price of oil. Of course, yes, we believe you. It would, of course, be just about the right time to jump ship.