Engineers say sabotage theory unlikely

Noel Muscat

Nov 25th 2009, 15:18

Do you remember 31May 07 Marsa power station explotion where 7 workors where badly injured,I think no one remembers,but I do when I go in front of a miror and see my 15%burned body scars and remember what we where trying to avoid.But there is no heart feeling we love our work infact 6 of us reported fit just after 3 months.We just give 100% evrey time we punch in at marsa.WE are not the EVEL someone made people think we are!!!!

Pule' Carmel

Nov 24th 2009, 00:39

I calculated that every 24 hours, Londoners, through the aircraft traffic at Heathrow and Gatwick, over 200,000 Tons ( two hundred thousand tons) of metal fly over their homes. Now that is saying somethings on the manner in which some citizens are requirred to live.
Modern life require all of us to take risks and that including living under a blanket of flying metal. The other day I looked at a real time video of all the aircraft flying across the Atlantic at any one time. I do not know how many layers I counted and they looked as the layers in a lasania dish which my wife occassionallly cooks. The number of aircraft looked as ants following in lines through the required corridors and it is a good thing that those pilots follow those corridors other wlse they would not last long.
I tried to callculate the fuel that all those aircraft are burning at any one time and I just could not believe that our oil wells would last that long. Still we do it, and we accept it. Our transportation on land air and sea does not come without its risks to those out of the vehicles!!

ray sacco

Nov 22nd 2009, 20:22

the fact is that enemalta workers are fed up being negatively targeted daily by the press and by many people, whether its black dust, electricity black outs or every other thing. we do not need appreciation, just leave us work in peace. the hazards with which we work with every day are unlimited. we are paid for what we do, and we do it with responsability. so we don't need any gratitude. just a bit of respect.

Ray Gatt

Nov 22nd 2009, 18:50

I've looked long and hard to find anything Mr. Tranter said that suggested sabotage or blaming the workers, but did not find it. Maybe somebody could help me out and indicate a site for me???

Pule' Carmel

Nov 22nd 2009, 15:18

For those who do not understand Power Stations.
Machines No 5, No 6, No7, though old were the smoothest and most robust machines that I ever saw while No 8 was a good machine which at sometime, gave some problems with the pitting of sliprings but nothing major. One expert said that if the punishment that these machine took, was applied to modern machines designed to the limit of their performance and to the limits of what materials can take, they would not last half the lifetime of these old machines. There is nothing wrong with the generating machines.
Now as far as the switchgear, the total power or 5,6,7,8, amount to 160 Megawatts and If a fault occurs and the switchgear had to come in and break off that power it is as if MORE THAN 200,000. TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND HorsePower on the loose had to be brought to a stop in a few MILLISECONDS,, I tell you it is no small effort for the switchgear be it AIRBLAST,OIL,VACUUM or the newSF6 gas breakers now being used.
If one looks at he gaps used, one would be bewildered and just thinK of lightning in WINTER occuring in one's pocket.!!

marlene pullicino

Nov 22nd 2009, 13:34

I wish to thank enemalta employees at Marsa Power Station for their efforts to restore electrical supply to so many localities in such a short time. After such an incident I keep wondering if these very workers are actually guaranteed safety at their place of work ! Has our MPS actually overexhausted its lifetime....... and has thus become so unreliable and ...maybe dangerous..?

Paul Ciantar

Nov 22nd 2009, 11:54

Mr Tranter resign... this comes from a PN voter

jo azzopardi

Nov 21st 2009, 17:37

@ mr sacco & mr nicchia
Thanks for your info .
The fact that these machines are much older, underlines my gratitude for the marsa Employees

ray sacco

Nov 21st 2009, 15:32

@mr. jo. azzopardi
thank you. the marsa power station turbines are not 25 years old. the latest plants in marsa, units 7 & 8, were bought second hand more than 25 years old, and so they must be around 40 years old or more. other plants are older.

Mario Nicchia

Nov 21st 2009, 12:19

@Jo Azzopardi

I think all Enemalta power station employees will be grateful to hear that somebody at last reckons their efforts.

I find it strange that in an island composed mostly of workers, these do not sympathize with each other about the dangers they may have to work in. Nobody mentioned that luckily nobody was near the switchgear at the time of the explosion. Nobody thought about the danger that these workers may be working in, or whether maintenance was ever sacrificed
in the name of security of supply.

One final observation, in stating that the power station is 25 years old you are not giving these wokers justice, Marsa Power station is more than 40 years old. If you visit the corporation site you will find that the first turbines (that are still operational) were installed in 1966.

jo azzopardi

Nov 21st 2009, 07:40

I would like to thank the workers at marsa power station.
They are the only (workers) in europe that manage to start up a 25 year old plant which in europe would only be found in a museum.
Amazingly these boilers turbines and so on are still working and efficiently tough any replacement has been made in 20 years.
Faults happen on an engine that has been runnning for over 25 years.
Thanks to the maintenance and those who run these engines are still working today.
Once again thanks to all employees at marsa I doubt if we could have any electricity at home with the Delimara Power station only??

ray sacco

Nov 20th 2009, 19:36

@michael borg: what do you mean by workers? it seems that you are not including yourself, just because you are an electronics technician; let alone, you do not even know how to spell the name of your own trade correctly. there are electronics technicians, plant operators, engineers, electricians, fitters and many other trades at both power stations and we all call ourselves workers. and we all know what we're capable of, too: to be responsable of what we do, inspite of what you and some others think! and by the way, we're capable of another thing too: how to spell the name of our trade.

victor borg

Nov 20th 2009, 18:18

will this accident at the power station be another excuse for more higher tarifs so far we have not been told what we will be paying in january and somehow we are always told the excuse is the price of oil but never bad management and lack of maintenance

GiovDeMartino

Nov 20th 2009, 17:36

"In this country it is still innocent until proven guilty" Basta ma jkunx xi ministru, seg. par. jew attivist nazzjonalist!

N.Cortis

Nov 20th 2009, 17:19

When everything is going easy and well----the top managment are praised,goes on TV stations and boasts about how serious and responsable they are------never praising workers----who after all are the real productive factor!!!! When something goes wrong (such as in this case) the management is not to blame, but the workers are at fault!!!!! Certain top managers are incompetent and are not worth the very high salaries they are receiving!!!!! For the sake of fairness False statments about workers should be followed by resignation.

J Farrugia

Nov 20th 2009, 14:51

Mr Tranter qatt m'allega li xi hadd ghamel sabotagg. Kull ma qal kien li irrefera ghal xi rapporti fil-media li bdew jispekulaw. Nisfida lil kulhadd biex jghidli fejn, fid-diskors li ghamel is-sur Tranter fil-konferenza tal-ahbarijiet, qatt sema l-kelma 'sabotagg'. Kull m'ghandkom taghmlu morru fil-website tat-times (http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20091118/local/wide-areas-without-power-after-marsa-power-house-explosion) u isimghu id-diskors kollu li fuqu l-GWU ghamlet plejtu. Is-soltu gideb tal-GWU li tipprova taqbad ma kull tibna qabel tghereq.

Jeremy J Camilleri

Nov 20th 2009, 13:42

People like MIchael Borg NEVER cease to amaze me...I mean...he writes about workers as some dangerous animal escaping from a circus...strange coming from a worker...or someone who was a worker anyway.

In this country, it is still innocent untill proven guilty.

Tranter blabbed on about sabotage before he was even sure, so yes, if he was wrong, and we will know after the enquiry, it is certainly a case in which anyone with even a small amount of decency would either apologise, or resign. I doubt Tranter will do either.

As to Borg stating that he would be surprised what workers can do, well, I m not really surprised as people in any position can commit a huge number of atrocities...however, the potential to do harm doesn t mean that everyone is locked up...

If Borg can't get that, then well, nothing to say really......

Albert Farrugia

Nov 20th 2009, 13:24

Ing. Tranter did a grave mistake at his press conferece by making certain "press reports" his own, indicating he more or less agrees with them. Of course in a democratic country when someone of such rank puts his foot in it in this way he voluntarily steps down. But not in this medieval fiefdom....

m borg

Nov 20th 2009, 13:24

@ l Schembri.

there was already another accident in June 2007 where 7 workers were injured, some of the seriously !! Mietet fuq ommha l-bicca! One can come to a conclusion that in this country noone is competent and shoulder his responsability. In 2007 there was lack of maintenance, and there was such an accident! What maintenance have been carried till now? Are we expecting more accidents? Mr Tranter, you only have one option: RESIGN !!

Mario Busuttil

Nov 20th 2009, 13:13

@Micheal Borg....If you want to take on someone or to try to fool us go and try somewhere else,,we are all responsability persons who work inside generation plant or maybe you are an ameture technician.... Siehbi Tippruvax IDDAHAK halllina bil kwiet flok irringrazzjat li gie id dawl malajr......

J Martinelli

Nov 20th 2009, 13:08

@ Marica Saliba et al

If it is equipment failure, Tranter should resign? Hogwash!

Mr. Tranter is not a maintenance engineer who should have, or would have been servicing the Marsa Power station.

At this rate, anything that goes wrong, anywhere, the Civil servant/Minister/Department head should resign? Some system (or lack of one) we would have!

The inquiry is not over yet, so let it be and then, needless to say, some of you would still try to pin it on the wrong guy. You would wait for Joseph's pronouncement on the matter and like parrots, repeat the message. All self proclaimed engineers will no doubt weigh in.

By the way, Mr. Tranton did not accuse any of his employees, he merely remarked that the last blackout was just after the Power station(s) were discussed in Parliament and coincidentally the second interruption was just after his appearance on Dissett. One cannot dispute facts.

I too find it quite odd, if not coincidental!

J.Tonna

Nov 20th 2009, 13:05

Friends, you are running into conclusions - most probably as Ing Tranter did - why not wait for the investigations' results? So that no one of you will have to bite his tongue.

Jonathan Scerri

Nov 20th 2009, 13:03

As an ex-engineer of Enemalta, I sympathise with my colleagues for having to go through the ordeal of answering police questions (who have no technical idea of what could have happened) just because a Chairman has hastily called "sabotage".
That is the kind of professional way in which Enemalta performs its internal enquiries.
OHSA, please wake up: People are risking their lives at Marsa Power Station. You cannot act too soon.

D. MANGION

Nov 20th 2009, 12:55

The scum that certain "big fish" can come up with in order to save their comfy seat is beyond any imagination...but.....

1-If it turns out to be sabotage, then Mr . Tranter should resign for failing to be pro-active in his security systems. If there was a possibility of sabotage or a vulnerable spot in our power station, and he knew about it, his duty is to try and prevent it and not let it happen and then try to find the culprit.

2-If it turns out to be non-sabotage but just a result of a mechanical failure, then he should resign in shame for having the utter disgustance of pointing his finger at his employees when his first duty is to lead them, and safeguard their wellbeing.

If I was the leader of their trade union, I would order a shut-up of the power station for 1 hour per day until he either apologises to the workers, or resigns.

Byron Camilleri

Nov 20th 2009, 12:45

Sabotage! Sabotage! The aliens are taking over... What a cheap propoganda!

Josephine Farrugia

Nov 20th 2009, 12:14

Although not directly accused by Mr Tranter the insinuation that the workers could have sabotaged the plant was there for all to see. This and other irregular and unethical actions by the political appointee leaves just one honourable solution; RESIGN.

joe vella

Nov 20th 2009, 12:10

the politics of cosmetics and farfarlu has become the norm of the day and the malaise has now spread from the administration to all its branches!
wherever you get involved with a government dept or other related entities the smell of inefficiency and bureaucracy smacks you in the face-once you complain there are always relevant excuses coming up
this enemalta saga is another event along these lines, it is so so easy to shed doubt on others and not try to shoulder responsibility yourself
unfortunately it has become so easy for responsibility to go down rather than up the line!
why doesn't the minister commission some serious consulting engineering firm, local or foreign,who do not have any connection with enemalta - with a clear brief to assess the state of the vital generatiing and switchgear equipment, whether maintenance procedures are adequate and being followed/updated as required
considering the taxpayer money going down the enemalta shaft, this cost may be borne out by the benefits
it is about time joe public is given a clear picture of where our funds are going and that we are not simply paying for inefficiency that enemalta management cannot or will not control

T.Galea

Nov 20th 2009, 12:07

I don't think that an employer would risk his life and job just for the fun of seeing something exploding , creating a blackout and MAYBE just maybe get a raise in his pay(which isn't going to happen unfortunately) I think its more coincidence then sabotage. The Marsa power station has to be fully refurbished or a new power station instead of the marsa one has to be built... Marsa power station is a bit old now (approx. 70 yrs) and don't forget it was brought here in Malta second hand!

Richard Galea

Nov 20th 2009, 11:54

RESIGN!!.... Dr. Tranter....as now you have only contempt from all the Enemalta staff........Mela tahseb li Il-Haddiema tfal.....u il POPLU CUC!!

J Mallia

Nov 20th 2009, 11:42

Mr Tranter, your explanation on Dissett of why 6 people are so highly paid, is because they carry too much "responsability" in their line of duty.
So who is "responsable" for this gross incompitance ??

Alfred Baldacchino

Nov 20th 2009, 11:38

The word 'sabotage' did a lot of harm to the country's image.

Graham Crocker

Nov 20th 2009, 11:38

I still find it a bit suspicious that whenever there is something on TV about enemalta ( I think there was something on dissett the night before), Malta coincidentally and more often then not ends up without electricity.
Nobody is going to accuse their own people (duh), unless they are begging for trouble and I'm sure everybody knows that when something sinister happens at their workplace everybody shuts up as not to draw attention to themselves.

Since there is a connection between all these incidents, there should be an investigation , because now it seems more absurd to rule it out then not to and we all know how some people can be clanny enough to forget that they first and foremost are Maltese.

Jeremy J Camilleri

Nov 20th 2009, 11:34

Lets wait for the police investigation.

If Tranter was wrong, he should resign....but we know that he won't....

It doesnt seem as if he is a fan of honourable and decent behaviour

R Azzopardi

Nov 20th 2009, 11:32

Why oh why is everything politicized. Everyone in here trying to put down the Chairman of Enemalta has no idea what the job entails. First of all the pressure in this job is immense and secondly he is doing a great job to ensure we implement the user pays principle. All the Chairman did was call in the Police and a magistrate to establish the cause of the explosion - he has NOT accused anyone of anything. It is only the GWU and the commentators in here that have drawn that conclusion by putting two and two together to make five.

We now have two independent bodies that will establish the cause - whether there was foul play or not. The only accusations are those from commentators (or is it commentors?!?!) that are trying to score political points.

Give the guy a break - who in his right mind would ever want such a job?

Mark Galea

Nov 20th 2009, 11:31

there can be many truths about the same incident.

g.c.Forte

Nov 20th 2009, 11:27

@ I.Brown..................Prosit..........Jien nissekondak . The ironic thing in this country,is that the government do nothing wrong, the directors do nothing wrong,the N.G.O`s do nothing wrong, nobody is responsible nobody is accountable when something goes wrong, only the the employer can go wrong. @ P.N. bloggers............You always make a FUSS because we had hard time in the 70`s because we had no choice in chocolate, but to day living in 2010 having so many BLACKOUTS, like our fathers use to have during the war, and .........you keep on saying,it is not the government to blame. Dr. Austin should resign, because I had to go to work without coffee last Wednesday.

Deo Catania

Nov 20th 2009, 11:25

Enemalta workers should sue Alex Tranter in court. He should also make a public apology and resign.

maria curmi

Nov 20th 2009, 11:14

Prosit Tranter issa fil milied mur mal priminstru u ghdlhom happy christmas u sorry jekk int vera gentleman

Eric Saliba

Nov 20th 2009, 11:12

Resign ? You must be joking in this island of ours.....his comments where premature, irresponsible and in a state of panic. When you think of the salary they get off our backs you wonder if to laugh or to cry.

george attard

Nov 20th 2009, 11:09

if the chairman considers this may be sabotage he should resign since he should have taken steps to assure that this does not happen so frequently by putting adequate security in place.

Joe Cassar

Nov 20th 2009, 11:06

@ Mr Brown & Mr Cachia

Resign? Re-what? What does that word mean?

I think you must be talking in some other language

tony abela

Nov 20th 2009, 11:05

Mr Tranter's comments were immature and unwarranted. He should have enough confidence in his Chief Engineer and if Mr Tranter is not specialised in Power Station technicalties he should have consulted his expert engineers at Enemalta before opening his mouth.

I am of the opinion that it is next to impossible to make a sabotage act at any power station and very likely that a vintage equipment such as that of Marsa Power Station to develope technical faults which some of them might be major ones.

No wonder with the attitude of Mr Tranter we are facing problems in the field he is responsable for.

L. Coleiro

Nov 20th 2009, 10:57

The sabotage theory came up just a few hours before the PM's speech and was rubbished the day after.

So I ask now……… where is the real coincidence?

john borg

Nov 20th 2009, 10:53

Ma tarax li l-inginier se jirrizenja! Taht Gonzipn xejn mhu possibbli!

Marica Saliba

Nov 20th 2009, 10:52

If this is the case, the it is definitely a resigning matter for Dr Tranter. Let us wait for the official enquiry to be concluded. If the engineers' comments still hold then dear Tranter you should step down!

Michael Borg

Nov 20th 2009, 10:50

qoute It is next to impossible for somebody to sabotage hahaha you will be surprsied what workers can do !!! they spend more then a thid of their life there !! so things they learn to do is un-imaginable . i am electronics technican and used to work in a factory , a cleaner showed me how to adjust the clock foward and backwards without touching the punch clock itself !! tricks of the trade !!!

laurence schembri

Nov 20th 2009, 10:41

Sabotage? Why? This thing happen too often to put it down to sabotage.
My only worry is, that some day some people will get hurt. So far they been lucky.

I Brown

Nov 20th 2009, 10:41

Prosit Tranter. Issa rrezenja talli akkuzajt lill-impjegati tieghek li ghamlu sabotagg flok ghedt li inti chairman ta' kumpanija li qed taqa' bicciet.

M. Cachia

Nov 20th 2009, 10:38

If it is proven that the explosion was caused by lack of maintenance rather than Sabotage, as hinted by Ing. Tranter, then the only honorable way out for him is to resign. Needless to say that it was also highly un-ethical for him to jump the gun while a police investigation was underway.