Nationalist Party leader Alex Borg has said that the financial cost of yet another spate of power cuts must be assessed by the government, while Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said that it was due to Enemalta’s investment in the past couple of years that power could be restored quicker in areas affected by the cuts in electricity.

They were speaking in an urgent debate in Parliament requested by the PN about the power cuts that affected several localities in Malta as the country grapples with a summer heatwave.

The debate was requested by the PN, with party Leader Alex Borg saying that the recurring power cuts were having "serious consequences" for the quality of life of residents, the productivity of businesses, the country's competitiveness and the operation of essential services.

Responding on behalf of the government, Government Whip Naomi Cachia initially suggested that there was no basis for the request, saying the issues raised had already been addressed in a statement issued earlier in the day by Enemalta.

However, she said that the government had no issue with a discussion being held on the matter, as it eventually was.

Opening the debate, Borg said repeated power cuts had become "a daily hardship" rather than a mere inconvenience for thousands of Maltese and Gozitan residents.

He said families had spent consecutive nights without electricity during a heatwave that saw temperatures exceed 43°C, describing the situation as particularly difficult for elderly people, infants, children, vulnerable persons and those relying on electrically powered medical equipment.

"In a European country in 2026, the Maltese government has turned electricity into a luxury," Borg said, arguing that the outages were not the result of an unforeseen emergency but of years of inadequate planning despite repeated warnings about rising summer demand.

The Opposition Leader listed several localities affected by recent interruptions, including Qawra, Sliema, St Julian's, Swieqi, Mellieħa, Manikata, Mġarr, Rabat, Qormi, Birkirkara, Balzan and Iklin.

He cited reports from residents, including people in St Paul's Bay who experienced four consecutive nights of power cuts lasting up to seven hours, a Qawra resident who said electricity had failed five times in one week and was forced to discard spoiled food on two occasions, and outages in parts of Sliema during the hottest day ever recorded in Malta in July.

Borg said the debate was ultimately about the people affected rather than the localities themselves, arguing that every outage represented families unable to sleep and vulnerable residents struggling without essential cooling or medical equipment.

Borg described parents trying to comfort babies in homes left without air conditioning during the heatwave, workers facing sleepless nights before going to work, and people unable to work remotely because they had no electricity to power their computers.

He also said offices and businesses had been forced to suspend operations during prolonged outages.

Borg criticised the government for what he described as attempts to downplay the situation, insisting that "every hour without electricity comes at a cost."

He said many families had been forced to throw away food after refrigerators and freezers lost power, including meat, fish, dairy products and frozen goods, adding that households already struggling with the rising cost of living could not afford to replace their groceries.

The Opposition leader also raised concerns about medicines requiring refrigerated storage, including insulin, questioning what support would be available to patients whose medication may have been compromised during lengthy outages. He asked who would cover the cost of replacement medicines and what guidance had been issued to pharmacists, doctors and patients.

Borg argued that the problem was not limited to power cuts themselves but also included fluctuations in voltage when electricity was restored, which he said had damaged household appliances and business equipment.

He said residents and businesses had reported damage to refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, televisions, routers, computers, security systems, lifts and commercial machinery.

For small businesses, he said, replacing damaged equipment could cost thousands of euros, while self-employed workers could lose days of income if essential computers or machinery failed. Restaurants and food retailers also risked losing entire stocks of perishable goods, while offices, salons and workshops continued to incur wage costs even when operations had ground to a halt.

Borg said the government should assess the crisis not only by the duration of outages but also by the financial losses suffered by Maltese and Gozitan households and businesses.

Responding on behalf of the government, Energy Minister Miriam Dalli rejected what she described as the Opposition's "extreme" portrayal of the situation, saying it failed to reflect the reality on the ground.

Dalli said Malta was experiencing exceptionally high temperatures due to an intense heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 43°C on Saturday and remaining above 41°C on the day of the debate. She said the conditions had driven electricity demand to record levels.

The minister said peak demand had risen from 663 megawatts during the 2023 heatwave to 710 megawatts, stressing the importance of distinguishing between electricity generation and electricity distribution.

She argued that government investment in both sectors had enabled Enemalta to switch most affected customers onto alternative electricity sources when faults occurred, limiting the impact of the outages.

Dalli said the latest disruptions had mainly affected Birkirkara, Iklin and Balzan, where four separate faults had been identified on different underground cables. She stressed that the incidents were unrelated to each other and that Enemalta's engineers and technical teams had immediately begun repair works.

The minister thanked Enemalta employees for their efforts to restore electricity as quickly as possible and said the company had also deployed generators at affected substations to minimise disruption while repairs were underway.

Dalli said Nationalist Party speakers had cast doubt on the scale of investment undertaken, arguing that comparable infrastructure spending had not taken place under previous PN administrations.

The minister said the government had taken a "clear decision" to accelerate a multi-year programme aimed at strengthening and modernising the electricity distribution network across Malta and Gozo.

She said significant infrastructure works had already been completed in a number of localities, while projects in other areas remained underway or were scheduled to begin.

According to Dalli, upgrades already completed by Enemalta had enabled the utility to restore electricity more quickly by switching affected customers to alternative power sources when faults occurred.

Referring to the recent outages, Dalli said work had already begun in those localities but that further reinforcement projects were planned to increase the network's capacity and resilience in anticipation of growing electricity demand.

She described the programme as an extensive infrastructure project being implemented at a sustained pace under a clear long-term plan.