Compensation for the electricity outages is a right, the Nationalist Party said on Tuesday.

The PN said that the Government should rightfully give appropriate compensation whilst also making the necessary investment in the distribution system to ensure that there are no longer any more blackouts.

It was reacting to the news that the government will be giving a one-time ex gratia payment to households and businesses that experienced prolonged electricity interruptions, exceeding six hours cumulatively, between the 17th and 27th of July.

The PN recalled that throughout the recent weeks, it has been calling for those affected by the outages during the summer to receive "appropriate and worthy compensation". It added that this compensation should be done automatically and provided as a right rather than having to rely on "the goodwill of the Government".

"The Government should be clear and say whether this compensation will be issued directly by it or by Enemalta ... of which a third of the shares are owned by Shanghai Electric," the PN said.

It said that it must be the Regulator for Energy and Water Services which imposes on Enemalta, as the operator and service provider, to provide this form of automatic compensation to anyone who suffers or has suffered a service interruption for over six hours. The PN said that in proposed this a few weeks ago as "that is how it is done in other European countries".