The localities of Mosta and Naxxar were left without power overnight and into Tuesday morning with Enemalta clarifying that these issues were a result of damages to underground power cables.

Power outages also occurred on Monday evening with Sliema, Għargħur, Fgura, and Rabat amongst the areas affected, but power was restored within the day.

According to an update published by Enemalta, they will continue working nonstop to complete the necessary repairs and restore power to the remaining affected localities.

In a statement, Enemalta said that engineers and technicians had been working throughout the night to carry out extensive repairs in Mosta and Naxxar after five unrelated underground cable faults were registered in different parts of the two localities.

Some areas saw electricity supply restored within a short period of time through alternative network connections, but some areas saw the additional connections affected as well which means that supply restoration is not possible until the cables are repaired.  Those repairs, Enemalta said, require road excavations and delicate high voltage cable jointing works to replace those which are damaged.

Such works are ongoing at three locations in Mosta and Naxxar.

Enemalta said that electricity supply will be restored during the day, with all customers expected to be reconnected to the grid by Tuesday afternoon. Services to Naxxar were reported as being restored on Tuesday mid-morning.

This situation happened on the same week that is projected to be amongst the hottest in Europe's history.

Enemalta published a statement informing those affected by the outages that they are able to receive live SMS updates on the status of repairs by texting the ID number of the account holder to the number 79052492.

 

Enemalta CEO Jonathan Cardona thanked the workers involved in these major repair works and the Company’s customers for their cooperation. “Such faults in our underground infrastructure cannot be eliminated and we regret the inconveniences they cause to our customers, especially during summer,” Cardona said, “however, through our ongoing six-year €90 million network reinforcement programme we are committed to keep improving network flexibility and resilience so that when such difficulties happen, we can restore supply in the shortest time possible. Through the upgrades completed in recent months, we have already strengthened the network in many parts of Malta. Several upgrades in Mosta and Naxxar are underway as well. Moreover, the two localities’ network will continue to be consolidated with the new distribution centre we are planning for this region,” Cardona explained.

The Government has brought the electrical system to its knees – PN 

In a statement, the PN noted that the interruptions are not the fault of the workers of Enemalta, who are making a big sacrifice in unbearable conditions, and who deserve every appreciation and praise.

“This is the fault of those who are pretending to be capable of enacting miracles with a system that has not seen the necessary investments,” the party said.

“The clumsy increase in population and construction, without the proper investments in infrastructure, has brought Enemalta down to its knees as well,” it continued.

The PN said that it has been brought down so significantly that it seems the stock of service cables has been used up, resulting in a waiting time of weeks if not months for those who apply for service as the little stock they have left is being reserved for emergencies.

The party questioned where the investment which has long been promised by the Minister of Energy “to strengthen the distribution system” is.

 

“How much better off we would have been if instead of finding €400 million for the frauds of Vitals and Steward, we had found the investment that the infrastructure needed,” the party said.