Noel Grima’s comments on the doings of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) are on the ball. There was never much hope of nailing certain characters down without much harder evidence that was available. The only place I would disagree with him is on the supposedly “clear testimony” of David Spiteri Gingell (DSG).
Many people had been pointing out that Enemalta was “a corporation in shambles” well before DSG who, if savvy in money matters does not seem to have been too good on power stations.
The National Power Generation Plan (NPGP) of 2006 did mention a Delimara Power Station extension “based on gas”; but it was not the “gas” DSG probably uses to fry his eggs. That is Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), which is obtained from crude and stored in liquid form under some pressure. It is imported by tanker and transferred to cylinders or small tanks. Power station “gas” is natural gas (NG), obtained in gas form from gas wells; it can be handled as a liquid, but only if it is cooled to -122C. Supply of NG in large quantities comes mainly in two forms.
A pipeline, of the type of the Tripoli-Gela Greenstream, can supply NG in gas form ready for use. Or liquid NG (LNG) can be imported by tanker, stored in onshore tanks and then passed through a re-gasifier, which turns it from liquid into gas, for burning in a PS.
The tanker and onshore storage require highly insulated tanks to prevent large losses through evaporation of the fuel.
So DSG’s “nightmare” had no relevance to the NPGP; and the absence of any infrastructure to bring in required quantities of NG had been trumpeted widely, well before DSG. PL insistence of BWSC and Bateman equipment comparison on the basis of the latter using “gas” was pointless and worse.
The other DSG comment that the BWSC equipment was NOT a prototype also shows his rather tattered power station qualifications. What “equipment” was he referring to? There are at least four major pieces of “equipment” that go to make up the whole. None are singly “prototype”; but a combination of two of them is something of a “prototype” in a field where Enemalta has a rather poor record too: pollution control.
The latest episodes, come to think of it, took place during DSG’s stint as CEO.
E.A. Mallia
ATTARD