Monday, 22nd June 2009 - 19:26CET

Enemalta says plans provide for greater reliability, faster recovery from outages

Enemalta said today that a feature of its plans to upgrade its power generation facilities was the capability to restore power across the network in a much shorter time.

The corporation said that while it would continue to improve reliability, no guarantee could ever be given, anywhere, that there would not be power cuts.

The new generating plant would be comprised of eight heavy duty diesel engines, all of which would be capable of quick start - full load in less than 30 minutes compared to three to four hours for steam plan. These would complement the existing five quick start gas turbines giving a total quick start capability of over 300MWt.

A SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system to monitor and control the distribution system is also to be installed, and this together with the quick start engines would enable rapid re-energisation of the whole network.

The planned interconnector to Sicily would comprise two 225MW links, giving a total capacity of 450MW, and capable of an overload capability of 810MW for 1 hour (180%).

The corporation also insisted that the outage last week had nothing to do with lack of spare capacity.

Referring to a 2006 report, it said its current spare capacity was actually greater than projected because growth in demand had been slower.

"The implication that Enemalta did not have sufficient reserve capacity to cover for the tripping of the gas turbine on Tuesday 16th is clearly unfounded, at the time of the fault, there was one other gas turbine on standby, and following the fault, supply was restored to all areas."

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Article © Allied Newspapers Ltd., printed on Sunday, November 22, 2009. This article is for personal use only, and should not be distributed.

Comments

Eric Psaila (on 23/6/09)

We do not need any explanation whatsoever. Many Maltese citizens simply do not believe in the parliamentary institutions anymore thanks to continued lying by both parties.
However I would like to make a statement in connection with this article.
Really not to invest in electricity supply and then boost about Smart City really takes the biscuit. Does the government really think that we are still the same gullible citizens of the 1970's GonziPN the Church scaremongering is now history and we judge both parties on their performance. So far both GonziPN and PL have not yet convinced me to cast my vote. Both of you have to work very hard to get my vote and those of others who abstained. GonziPN must start by firing those people withing the party who's arrogance has become unacceptable. As for PL, look at your past and apologize to all those who suffered violence and terror under the Mintoff and KMB era. The only good thing about PL was Alfred Sant albeit in my opinion he got it all wrong when he froze our EU application and later crowned it all up when he resigned .

Galea. L (on 23/6/09)

"The planned interconnector to Sicily would comprise two 225MW links, giving a total capacity of 450MW, and capable of an overload capability of 810MW for 1 hour (180%)."
This is good news although we should never rely on outside supplies but have the generating capacity to meet all our demand.

Galea. L (on 23/6/09)

"The corporation also insisted that the outage last week had nothing to do with lack of spare capacity."
This is only saying half the truth. Even if we were to believe that we have the generating capacity to satisfy the demand, it is one thing having the generating capacity available on stand by and another having four boilers/turbines on maintenance at the same time which would do away with the generating capacity as evidenced by the great power failure.
And if we have the generating capacity to meet the demand, why was it reported by Enemalta in 2006 that this year we will start experiencing power cuts if no new investment is made?
Which is the correct version? It appears that the 2006 report was more correct than what is being said now.

a abela (on 23/6/09)

At mr scerri - to where? a moon trip?

Ramon Casha (on 23/6/09)

How about a system to ensure that when one turbine goes down for any reason, it doesn't drag the whole system down with it.

Lawrence Bonello (on 23/6/09)

Closing the gate after the horse has bolted! As usual!

Graham Crocker (on 23/6/09)

Marco Cremona, everybody has been complaining about the high bills yet I haven't heard or seen of anybody attempting to move off-grid to generate his own electricity by using Alternative energy.
http://www.off-grid.net/

D. Scerri (on 22/6/09)

"Enemalta says plans provide for greater reliability, faster recovery from outages"

...to be completed two months after the next election.

In other news, Porcus Pocus Airlines to commence daily service from Luqa.

The left one has bells on.

C A Camilleri (on 22/6/09)

Prosit Mr Cremona. We need more constructive arguments like these that stimulate (hopefully) the administration to act. I am sick of everyone having to take sides with the government or opposition. Its either them or us. Its a shame. I want to see Malta advance and heads should start rolling. If not, I am afraid it is much ado about nothing. Then we are asked to fulfill our duty to vote come election day. Is the administration from both sides doing its duty I ask?

C Cassar (on 22/6/09)

"The implication that Enemalta did not have sufficient reserve capacity to cover for the tripping of the gas turbine on Tuesday 16th is clearly unfounded" Can't have been so unfounded can it? We had a day-long power cut - or was that a figment of people's imagination? In other countries heads would roll for such a display of complacency in the face of patent inadequacy.

charles vella (on 22/6/09)

Come on is this an explanation for that black out . Now , we need this quick start capability , It is better to find other alternative cheaper and cleaner!!!!!!!!

Marco Cremona (on 22/6/09)

If we have more reserve-capacity than was envisaged in the Enemalta 2006 report, this was by chance not by design. It was hugely irresponsible of Enemalta to take a risk of not investing in additional generation capacity when the alarm bells were ringing even from within!! Did Enemalta/MRA embark on a nationwide energy saving campaign to ensure that the load on the power stations be reduced? No Did MEPA/MRA enforce the minimum energy performance of buildings regulations, in force since 1 Jan 2007? No Did we invest in renewables? No, government wasted the best of 3 years rubbishing renewables. It seems that government did everything in its capacity to take us to the brink..... and then panicked and decided to FORCE a reduction in demand by shocking the country with the electricity tariffs. In today's Times, the Prime Minister is quoted as saying that the fact that electricity-demand had increased substantially over the past 10 years is a clear indication of how much progress the country has achieved. Now, Enemalta is telling us that electricity demand was less than expected in the last 3 years. Does it therefore follow that less progress has been achieved in the last 3 years?

Enemalta says plans provide for greater reliability, faster recovery from outages

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