Power spike report within 'a few weeks'

A report giving specific details as to what led to a sudden spike in electricity demand that caused the Good Friday blackout should be concluded within "a few weeks", a Finance Ministry spokesman said.

The report will aim to determine what Enemalta could do so that the blackout does not repeat itself.

"The investigation into solutions to avoid imbalances between load and generation and total shutdown situations is still ongoing, although interim measures such as increasing the amount of spinning reserve at crucial times have been implemented," the spokesman said.

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech had called for a second report after the original investigation did not delve into what had caused the abnormal demand on Good Friday, a public holiday.

The original investigation showed that electricity demand on April 2 had increased by 11.5MW, more than double the spare capacity of 5MW, leading to the power outage.

The spokesman said that the faster than usual increase in load could have been due to a large number of appliances and lights being switched on at the same time rather than spread out over a longer period.

Interim measures to increase the available spinning reserve during times when the load could be expected to grow have already been put in place.