Claudia Calleja
Malta-wide blackout as aging plant trips again
Blackout causes traffic congestion
A pharmacist in Ħamrun went back to basics and served his clients with a lantern in hand after the whole island was hit by a blackout yesterday. Photo: Chris Sant Fournier.
A blackout hit the entire Maltese islands yesterday afternoon after an unexpected technical fault shut down a boiler at the Marsa power station.
As a consequence to this "instantaneous fault" to Boiler 7, that struck without warning, the power-generation load was shifted to the Delimara power station.
However, an automatic safety mechanism then shut down Delimara to protect the machinery from damage and power was disrupted to the whole of Malta and Gozo, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said during a press conference called to explain the incident yesterday evening.
Mr Fenech said Enemalta staff worked tirelessly to determine what triggered the fault to the boiler but the exact cause was not yet known. However, foul play had been ruled out, he added.
The country-wide power cut struck at about 4.10 p.m., sending people home early from work and causing some shopkeepers to pull down their shutters before closing time.
Others decided to stick it out and go back to basics, resorting to candle light and lanterns.
During the early rush hour, the traffic congestion was made worse by the fact that the lights were not working.
Power started to be restored to some areas at about 4.57 p.m. beginning with Mater Dei Hospital, which had been operating on generators.
That was followed by the Malta Freeport and parts of Msida and Sliema. By 8.47 p.m., power had been fully restored to the entire grid.
As he apologised for the inconvenience, Mr Fenech said the damage resulting from this power cut was "in no way similar" to that caused during the two most recent nation-wide blackouts last June and November. The June blackout alone, which lasted over 10 hours, was estimated to have cost the country between €8 and €10 million, according to an economist at the time.
In both June and November, equipment at the Marsa power plant had tripped.
"The reality is that the Marsa power station is getting old," Mr Fenech said, adding that the government was working on solving the problem through the extension of the Delimara station, planned for 2011, and installation of the submarine cable linking Malta to Sicily the following year.
The Marsa power station currently shouldered 25 per cent of the nation's electricity needs and the rest was catered for by Delimara, Mr Fenech explained.
After the fault occurred yesterday, the country's electricity supply was generated by Delimara with only some help from Boiler 9 in Marsa.
Mr Fenech explained that supply had to be switched on in phases not to trip the system.
He thanked the General Workers' Union for lifting ongoing industrial action by Enemalta workers. (The GWU had declared an industrial dispute with Enemalta, accusing the corporation of planning to transfer the work done by its employees in the Credit Control Section to a contractor.)
The Marsa station is scheduled to be shut down by 2015 after the EU imposed a 20,000-hour operational limit on it.
However, recent figures presented in Parliament showed that the Marsa station has used up over half its available hours of operation and, at the current rate, would have to be shut down earlier.
Meanwhile, speaking in Parliament yesterday before the press conference, Labour Deputy Leader Anġlu Farrugia asked whether the power cut was a case of sabotage and requested information on the inquiry into the sabotage allegations in the June fault.
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said at that stage he could not rule anything out in the latest outage although at the press conference later, Mr Fenech was able to do so. As for the June allegations, Dr Gonzi said he was sure police would have taken action if sabotage had resulted.
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Anthony Agius
Mar 24th 2010, 14:49
WHY DONT WE ASK THE AMERICANS OR THE FRENCH TO BUILT US A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT SO AT LEAST WE CAN GET BACK SOME OF THE MILLIONS WE ARE GIVING AWAY TO THE E.U IN TAXES AND OTHER CHARGES , AND OH YEAH KEEPING THE HUNDREDS OF REFUGEES FROM INVADING EUROPE AND HOLDING THEM IN MALTA WHILE THE REST OF EUROPE TRY AND FIND A SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM WHICH ISNT OURS.
simon cutajar
Mar 23rd 2010, 16:17
Back to the Mintoff era !
joe vella caruana
Mar 23rd 2010, 15:58
Why does Gonzi want to waste millions to build another Parliament House for a mere 65 persons, when the existing one is functionable and adequate? And then be a total miser to build a suitable Power Station for the needs of thousands of Maltese tax payers.????
Ronald Zammit
Mar 23rd 2010, 15:14
Meta kienet imbniet il power station tad Delemara, Il Gvern Nazzjonalista kien ta x'jifhem lil poplu, li il `Black outs' kien xi haga tal passat u ma ghanniex nidebendu izjed mil PS tal Marsa ghax zmiena kien ghadda! Il fatt li il Gvern tal PN kien konxju min dan kollu u nefaq flus il poplu biex suppost ikonna is serhan il mohh, juri bic carr l'inkompitenza ta dal Gvern li ma kien kapaci jahseb min qabel ghal din il problema u li issa qed jaqbdu paniku biex jara kif ser jaghmel wara ki raqad raqda nobis. Wara daz zmien kollu, stembhu u indunaw li il PS tal Marsa xjahet u ghadda zmiena.Dan id diskors smajnieh mil mexxej ta qabel tal PN 25 sena ilu!!!! u baqaw iccassati ghal daz zmien kollu. Povru poplu li qed ihallas ghal izbalji ta GonziPN!
J Brincat
Mar 23rd 2010, 14:17
"The reality is that the Marsa power station is getting old," Mr Fenech said
Wasn't the Deminara Power Station supposed to have totally replaced the Marsa plant after our country is Lm 200 million poorer because of its expnediture?
Was the PN, who has now been in power for 23 years, that short sighted so as not to aniticipate what was going to happen?
Unbelievalbe that this is happening in a EU country and in the 21st century!
albert leone ganado
Mar 23rd 2010, 13:36
As stated recently in a good article by a former senior enemalta engineer, heavy equipment is bound to fail unexpectedly even if relatively new, let alone if it is ageing.
However the serious concern here is an inability to manage risk properly. As any risk analyst can tell you the worst incidents are those of cascading risk when a relatively minor incident triggers a chain of events which results in a much more serious incident.
The problem here is clearly a network distribution and management problem. It should never happen that an incident in one boiler should result in the total outage of the whole electricity grid.
I thought that the problem had been taken in hand two years ago for this is purely a technical issue for which I have no doubt there are a number of technical solutions.
So please no banal excuses but a clear technical plan to ensure we learn from a trilogy of outage incidents and ensure that a technical solution is designed and implemented.
I have full trust that given the necessary resources our highly qualified power engineers can find a permanent solution.
R. Gauci
Mar 23rd 2010, 12:49
Aging plant? Niftakar lil Fenech Adami jghid, fl-1986, li jekk ma tinbeniex power station gdida li tissuplixxi lil Malta kollha bid-dawl se nipiccaw blackout ghax dik tal-Marsa spiccuta, ghaddew 25 sena, power station gdida nbniet u xorta wahda ghadna niddependu minnha sew.
Angus Mac Kinnon
Mar 23rd 2010, 12:45
For Godfrey Camilleri :
The technology is there and incorporated into the design and, as the article informs, Delimara was later carrying the entire load whilst the Marsa problem was being investigated and resolved. Power Station designs always provide for units dropping out and other units picking up the relevant loading thus avoiding loss of services to the Consumer. However, in addition to the Marsa problem that caused this particular failure, a protective system within the Delimara set-up kicked in - doing its job - and prevented the automatic pick-up of the Marsa load as would normally be the case. The cause of the protective system having to 'fail safe' is not given, but in a major and sophisticated Plant like Delimara the potential for something to go wrong, even is of a trivial nature, is covered by the need to put safety at the top end of the priorities.
lgalea
Mar 23rd 2010, 13:20
Thank you for giving credit to Dr KMB who when protesting against the Delimara power station had said that Malta should have a number of smaller power stations in different places so so that is one drops out the others will be able to take the extra load without all the others tripping. This was also a safety measure to guard against accidents and natural disasters including blockage of the cooling system and also against any attack. In other workd, as the old saying goes, DON'T PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET, but our incompetent PN governments wanted to get back at certain persons by building the power station in Delimara and we are now seeing the results of their INCOMPETENCE, ARROGANCE AND VENGEANCE.
Maria Agius
Mar 23rd 2010, 11:52
The solution is called spinning reserve. That is, if your largest turbine/boiler is say 100Mw, the other units on the grid must have enough spare capacity between them to make up for its loss. According to the statements read, this is not yet policy in Malta, (altough i believe it was proposed in an EU directive.) This maybe justified by our authorities, on the basis that it is quite expensive to have this spinning reserve, - which surely would not contribute in lowering the price of a kwh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_reserve
Christian Sciberras
Mar 23rd 2010, 11:36
The image above, I really like it. Very well done to the photographer (and the pharmacist)!
Reminds one of certain good old times.
Peter Murray
Mar 23rd 2010, 11:18
Where is the soon-to-be erstwhile sabotage conspiracy theorist in all this-namely the CEO of Enemalta,Ian Tranter?Surely it falls incumbent upon him to comment and what has he to say about all this ?What about his previous accusations of sabotage in relation to the previous power outage and what was the result and conclusions of the investiagations into his outrageous claims?
Godfrey Camilleri
Mar 23rd 2010, 11:15
What I am really at a loss at is the fact that although, according to the Minister, Marsa supplies 25% of Malta's electricity demand, (as far as I know, the % is actually higher), then how is it that with all the modern technology it has not yet been solved that if 25% is down, then 100% is off. This story of Delimara tripping with the load surely can have a technical solution!