The reactions which spread like wildfire on Thursday as soon as a massive power cut spread across Malta were rabid and over the top, fuelled no doubt by the intense heat which people deprived of air-conditioners were suddenly subjected to.

Most comments turned instantly political, even from people who two and a half years ago had voted Labour, perhaps with added virulence.

It got so bad that soon enough we had people supporting the government reminding us of the frequent power cuts under the Nats and then too exulting in a way that the PN addition, the Interconnector, had been the cause of the blackout.

Obviously, such partisan comments are what makes politics in Malta so confrontational and so repetitive.

It has been said there was some sort of fault in the Interconnector and no electricity was coming Malta’s way from Sicily.

This paper has searched around Italian newsportals and no mention has been found of power outages, as claimed in a way by the Enemalta spokespersons.

What has instead been found was that consumption of electric power in Italy has surged due to the very hot days we have been having. Interestingly, power consumption in July surged by 13.4% in the South, even more than in the North which surged by 13.1%.

We expect to be given more information and from surer and certifiable sources but, we ask, could it be that Sicily at that point, ran out of electricity it could give us, hence the blackout?

Whatever happened on the other side of the sea, however, soon produced an almost national blackout here in Malta.

There are various interpretations afoot, and, again, one awaits further elucidation from Enemalta.

Could it be, some are asking, that Enemalta was depending totally or almost totally on the Interconnector flow because it is cheaper than from electricity produced locally at Delimara?

This paper reported yesterday: “It is understood that the interconnector was supplying the system with almost half of the domestic demand. This was, in a way, the first admission that Malta is relying heavily on the interconnector, which enables the country to buy energy at cheaper rates.” Maybe the ‘half of domestic demand’ is understated.

Add to this what an official spokesperson told this paper: "Since we were using a substantial amount from the interconnector the sudden power shutdown from Sicily led to an imbalance at the Delimara power station, which was not being used at full capacity. The process to switch on all turbines at Delimara takes some time." The timing is around right: the time taken to restore power to all the affected areas was the time needed to start up the Delimara turbines, even if the BWSC ones are specifically designed for quick start-ups, as against the larger turbines from the earlier Delimara period which take far longer.

Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi told the Times: “The outage showed Malta could not just depend on imported energy and needed to have enough generating power domestically.” Wise words, with perhaps a tinge of being ‘wise after the event’?