The government is working on strengthening Malta’s energy infrastructure. The need for this became very clear after the series of power cuts struck the country during the summer.

The cuts came at a time when Malta was in the middle of a sweltering heat wave, and many people were left fuming as cut after cut occurred. The system just couldn’t cope, with the authorities saying at the time that underground cable faults were caused by the high temperatures.

The situation revealed that Malta’s distribution system is just not up to scratch.

On Thursday, Enemalta presented an update on the implementation of its plan to reinforce Malta’s electricity infrastructure to the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development (MCESD). The meeting followed on from one earlier in the year, when the government had announced that it would double its 2024 electricity infrastructure investment to continue preparing the country for the impacts of global warming and other extreme weather conditions caused by climate change.

Minister Miriam Dalli, in the latest meeting, now said that “we have more than tripled the investment. We have also been actively advancing the work in the distribution system. This effort will further intensify in the coming months through collaboration between Enemalta, Infrastructure Malta, and Transport Malta.”

Malta cannot afford another stretch of cuts during a heat wave like the one experienced last summer. It was torturous for people not being able to turn on a fan during such a scorcher.

It has been announced that the more than 70km cables extension of the national grid will add more alternative connections between different nodes of the network to facilitate quicker service restoration in cases of difficulty, and that next year Enemalta will also continue implementing its six-year plan, with the commissioning of another 45 new substations and the upgrading of several existing ones, among other things.

Investment in secure energy provision is a must and is welcome, though to be honest, the government did leave it last minute to ramp up this process. The country should never have had to suffer as it did during that heat wave to begin with.

But at least things now seem to be moving.

In the meantime, the country must continue focusing on renewable energy generation, and there are projects in the pipeline.

One thing that must also be pointed out is the government’s past push for more electric vehicles, and the eventual banning of the sale of combustion engine vehicles. Eventually a massive push in charging stations will be needed. Let’s not forget, not everyone has access to a garage. With that, will come the need for electricity provision to meet that demand. This is also why planning the electricity infrastructure from now is of the utmost importance.