Power failure 'cost economy €8-10m'

Tuesday's power failure that brought households, shops and industry to a standstill could cost the country between €8 and €10 million, economist Edward Scicluna estimates.

The sum, which amounts to half of the national daily value-added, does not include €2 to €3 million worth of losses caused by damages arising from loss of transactions and refrigerated goods that had gone bad. The figure does not include losses to households either.

Malta and Gozo were hit by a total blackout on Tuesday as both power stations shut down completely twice. Several localities were without power between 10.30 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Prof. Scicluna was elected to the European Parliament at the June 6 EP elections on the Labour Party ticket.

Speaking to the press yesterday, Enemalta chairman, Alex Tranter said the corporation could not guarantee that Tuesday's blackout would not happen again.

Mr Tranter said no service provider anywhere in the world could guarantee an uninterrupted service of electricity because "extraordinary events happen". He said Tuesday's was one of these and this was why he excluded the possibility of compensation for damages suffered by any of Enemalta's consumers.

Mr Tranter said all indications pointed towards a fault at the Marsa power station's gas turbine number nine. Although called a gas turbine, it actually works on diesel. This tripped at 10.31 a.m. and had a "domino effect" on the other boilers and turbines in the power station.

Once Marsa had shut down, the load shifted on to the Delimara power station, which could not cope with the load. The in-built self-protection mechanism shut the machines off automatically, resulting in a massive blackout across Malta and Gozo.

Mr Tranter said that, although the corporation's indications pointed towards turbine nine, he did not exclude other reasons for the blackout. He said the second trip shed some light on what caused the first incident.

Enemalta's immediate internal investigation led engineers to eliminate a problem to the turbine's fuel system as the possible failure. He said the other possibility was a problem to the turbine's combustion system. This required its dismantling and could take up to 10 days.

He pointed out that this turbine was not usually used because it was quite expensive to run. It was usually used in peaks. It had been on since 8 a.m. on Tuesday, providing 31 megawatts of power.

Yesterday, the day after the fault developed, turbine nine was still used but loaded with just five megawatts of power. (See more details in The Times Business)

He said that after the first trip in both power stations, the corporation acted quickly to restore power to the station. Power was restored to 50 per cent of localities by 2.30 p.m. and by 4 p.m. to 95 per cent of Malta and Gozo.

As power was being restored to the remainder, the second trip took place at 4.01 p.m. and the power stations "were back to square one". The corporation moved to restore power and by 9 p.m. all localities in Malta and Gozo had electricity.

Mr Tranter said 323 megawatts of electricity were being used on Tuesday and a peak of 400 megawatts was expected this summer. He said that while Marsa was producing 177 megawatts, the one at Delimara was producing 146 megawatts. This was something the corporation could meet because four turbines, two at Marsa and two at Enemalta, were not in use on Tuesday. A boiler and a turbine at Marsa were undergoing unplanned maintenance while a unit and a gas turbine in Delimara were being overhauled as planned.

He said the last blackout was on June 7, 2004 when the country had no power between 2.45 and 7.51 p.m.

The last similar blackout, with a double trip, was on November 2, 1996. The first blackout was between 8.55 a.m. and 1.30 p.m., followed by another trip between 2.55 and 6.30 p.m. The problem on that day had been at the Delimara power station.

Although he acknowledged the damage caused by the blackout was costly because "it stopped Malta and the economy", Mr Tranter said no compensation would be paid out because the situation was due to "extraordinary circumstances".

He said the turbines were being maintained more frequently than their manufacturers' recommendations, which suggested a combustion inspection after 8,000 hours of use and a major inspection after 48,000 hours. Gas turbine nine was used an average of 300 hours a year.

Mr Tranter mentioned the interconnector cable between Malta and Siciliy, a project Enemalta hoped would be completed by 2012.

He said this cable would give added peace of mind because, while the usual load was 225 megawatts, it had an overload capacity of 400 megawatts for a maximum period of one hour. This would give Enemalta ample time to start up its reserve plants.