For the better part of the past week, Malta suffered through yet another heatwave, which caused yet another spate of debilitating power cuts.

The first heatwave of 2026 began on Thursday 16th July, when temperatures reached 38.1°C. Although the temperature dropped slightly to 36.8°C the following day, it still remained 5°C above July's mean maximum temperature (31.7°C).

From then onwards, temperatures consistently exceeded 38°C, with the highest temperature recorded by the Meteorological Office remaining above 42°C over the last three days. This also marked the first time on record that temperatures exceeded the 42°C mark for three consecutive days, prompting the Meteorological Office to issue a Red Weather Warning, its highest level of warning.

The heat plunged hundreds of streets across Malta and tens of thousands of people into darkness, as Malta’s electricity network simply failed to cope with the demands that came as a result.

These weren’t small power cuts: certain localities went whole days without power, some places barely had any electricity across the span of four whole days – leaving thousands struggling to cope with the high heat and having to resort to throwing away food, and take shelter in cafes or even book hotels to try and fend off the weather.

Enemalta said that Malta’s grid registered a record demand of 741 megawatts on Tuesday – which was 78 megawatts higher than the previous record of 663 megawatts which was registered in a heatwave in 2023; a heatwave which also caused severe disruptions to power supply across the country.

Since that heatwave, the government says that it has invested €140 million in the country’s electricity distribution network up until 2025 – but apparently to little avail, because the moment temperatures rose to similar levels to the 2023 heatwave – which was also in July – the same unacceptable disruption happened.

The primary cause is simple – and it’s not the heat. The heat is just the direct spark. The real reason is one which the government appears to refuse to acknowledge: a total lack of coordinated planning.

The record electricity demand set last Tuesday was an increase of 11.8% on the record that was set in 2023. Between 2023 and 2025, the country’s population increased by 4.4%.  When comparing July 2023 to July 2025 (figures for 2026 will only be released later in the year), tourism has increased by 24.5%.

Why would Malta’s power demand increase by 11.8% in the space of two years?  Is it because every resident felt emboldened enough to go out and buy an air conditioner for every room, or perhaps a second fridge?

No, it is because of the simple fact that Malta’s population – both in terms of residents and in terms of tourists – has continued to increase, and it has continued to increase to levels that the country’s infrastructure simply cannot cope.

The government’s €140 million investment was not something to improve the situation – it was simply the investment required to keep up with the country’s insatiable need to grow its population and to have more tourists.

Government apparatchiks and its friendly ‘influencers’ on its payroll can attempt to deflect blame onto the PN because there were power cuts back when it was in government, or because it should be proposing alternative plans for what can be done to remedy the situation all they want.

The fact, however, is that the PL has now been in government for 13 years – the pressure that is on Malta’s infrastructure is entirely its own fault. 

Having the chairman of Enemalta Ryan Fava saying this week in a media briefing about the power cuts that he was not expecting the record demand confirms that the government just doesn’t have a clue that Malta’s infrastructure is at its breaking point – and to fix the problem, you first have to actually recognise that it’s there.

And of course the PN is well within its rights to criticise the government – and to even call for Energy Minister Miriam Dalli’s resignation. This situation is a severe indictment of Dalli’s leadership of the energy sector: the government had three years to improve Malta’s electricity infrastructure to such a point that it can keep up with demand – yet it failed to do so.

Perhaps the sect of pseudo-analysts that seem to think they are the oracles of the country just because they have a Facebook page with a lot of followers should ask that the party that is actually in government come up with the solutions for problems of its own making.

This week was yet another situation which made clear that there is an intrinsic lack of planning in what is happening in this country, and it’s the people and people’s businesses who are the ones who are ultimately suffering the consequences for it.