According to the met experts, Malta is heading into yet another heatwave this week – the third one this summer. Given how things have been going at Enemalta, it is reasonable to assume that Malta will experience more power cuts during the hot days ahead.
Many parts of the country have already gone through this over the past couple of weeks, with the energy corporation blaming the increase in demand and the inadequate distribution system.
We were told that the demand for energy has reached record highs, surpassing pre-pandemic figures. Enemalta also said that, despite the €130 million investment in the distribution system, the infrastructure we have in place is still unable to cope with demand.
Energy Minister Miriam Dalli has described the situation as “unacceptable” and said that more investment is required.
But promising more investment and telling us that demand has increased is not enough.
Enemalta needs to explain how demand grew beyond pre-pandemic levels, when tourism is still very slow and thousands of foreign workers have left the island as a result of Covid-19.
It is true that we have gone through two heatwaves, but doesn’t this happen every year? Every year we are told that more people are putting on their air conditioning units, but don’t we all put on the ACs during the scorching summer months?
The increase in demand cannot be put down to increased economic activity, either. There is no new investment to speak of, and no new factories have opened, so how has the demand increased so much?
The only part of the system that really works well is the billing system because the bills always arrive on time.
Yet we customers are not getting what we are paying for. The energy system is failing us when we need it the most, and some households and businesses are incurring financial losses because of the frequent power outages.
Apart from the fact that constant power cuts could damage household appliances, businesses such as restaurants, grocers and butchers cannot stay for 15 hours without electricity. Many of them will likely have had to throw many products away.
Who is going to compensate them for their losses?
It is unfair that we pay our bills on time and in full, only to get a lousy service in return, especially when that lousy service results in a waste of product and loss of business.
Since another heatwave is on the way and the distribution system has not been fixed since last week (this is something that will take at least months to achieve), one can expect that the country will experience more power cuts in the days to come.
Fixing the system is a very urgent matter that should be treated as a top priority.
Furthermore, Enemalta must introduce the concept of compensating clients, at least those who are worst affected financially.
Over the years, the corporation said it had been looking into a number of claims for compensation but we have never actually heard anything about pay-outs for damages incurred as a result of power cuts. This needs to change.