Four firms have been identified as qualified to submit bids for the contract to lay the power cable between Sicily and Malta, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said in Parliament. The tender is being prepared.

Enemalta's call for expressions of interest closed in mid-January.

The link is expected to deliver up to 225 megawatts of elecricity.

The project, which is targeted for completion by the end of 2012, is expected to cost around €150 million, most of which will be covered by EU funds. It is planned that the cable landing sites will be situated on the Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq to Pembroke coast in Malta and at Marina di Ragusa in Sicily.

On the Maltese side it will be connected to the present transmission system while on the Sicilian side it will be connected to the network 18 km inshore at the Ragusa substation.

The interconnector is expected to have a sub-sea route length of 95 km and will be laid in sea depths of not more than 160 metres. The seabed is sandy for most of the route.

Studies into the possibility of the interconnector started in 1994, with a pre-feasibility study carried out by Electricité de France on behalf of Enemalta.

This study concluded that under the economic conditions prevailing at the time, an interconnector would not have been viable.

But a later study by Enemalta and Terna, an Italian transmission system operator (TSO) suggested that a 450 MW link, composed of two 225 MW cables, would be feasible and would offer security of supply.

With the interconnector and the closure of Marsa power station it is estimated that Malta's emissions of CO2 will be reduced by one million tons a year.

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