The dismantling of the Delimara power station will begin next year, a spokesperson for the Energy Ministry has confirmed.

Last week, questions were raised about the government’s commitment to halt the use of heavy fuel oil and decommission the old Delimara power station after the Nationalist Party pointed out that these measures did not make it into the final budget document.

Shadow Minister for Energy Marthese Portelli said that the draft budget document -inadvertently published by government- stated that the Delimara chimney would be removed as part of the new gas-fired power station project.

Dr Portelli said that this initiative did not make it into Finance Minister Edward Scicluna’s budget speech, with the government instead choosing to maintain use of the so-called cancer factory.

She questioned whether the government plans to continue using heavy fuel oil.

Replying to questions sent by The Malta Independent, a spokesperson for the Energy Ministry reassured that the government will come through on its pledge to stop using heavy fuel oil and dismantle the Delimara chimney.

"Enemalta and its strategic international partners are implementing the transformation of the country’s energy generation sector, with the development of a diversified energy mix based on efficient, clean and cost-effective energy sources.

“Whilst a new gas-powered plant is being developed and the existing Delimara Three Plant is being converted to run on gas and stop burning heavy fuel oil (HFO), Enemalta is also working on the decommissioning and dismantling of its older oil-fired plants.

“The dismantling and demolition of the Marsa Power Station is under way. The first of its chimneys and three HFO tanks were dismantled a few weeks ago.

“Next year, once the necessary alternative capacity is made available through the commissioning of the new gas-fired plant, the Company will also begin the decommissioning and dismantling of the oldest plant at the Delimara Power Station, the Delimara 1,  including its boilers, steam turbines and chimney.

“The provision is actually in the budget document."

The new gas-fired plant is scheduled to be operational by June 2016.

The construction of the plant will enter a critical phase at the end of the year, when the three gas turbines built by Siemens are delivered to the Delimara site.

The turbines are SGT-800s, a turbine that has been sold by Siemens since 1998.

The fleet reliability of these turbines is 99.4 per cent over the past five years,with an average time between forced outage of 5306 hours.