The lack of decision so far on the award of the tender for the laying of an interconnecting electricity cable between Malta and Sicily was not jeopardising EU funding for the project, Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt told Parliament yesterday.

He dispelled doubts that Sicily could supply Malta with electricity because of its own shortages, saying that power operators on the bigger island produced more than four times Malta’s annual usage of electricity. Even power generated from the wind alone was more than Malta’s needs.

Answering a number of supplementary questions from the opposition, Dr Gatt said it was still much too early to engage in talks with power producers before the conclusion of talks that had been going on for months with Sicilian distributor company Terna.

The salient points of the talks concerned the interconnector’s landing points in Malta and Sicily, as well as the grid supplying the electricity.

When opposition MP Leo Brincat asked if Malta had determined a source of power for the interconnector, mentioning reports that talks were also going on with French generator EDF, the minister said current talks were only with grid operators.

Power supplies could come not only from Sicily and Italy but also from France and Germany. Enemalta Corporation could talk with up to 15 producers. There even existed a sort of stock exchange where one could buy power exclusively for certain times. Once generated, electricity could not be stored but had to be consumed, he pointed out.

To Mr Brincat’s concerns that the imposed closure of the Marsa power station by September 2012 would leave Malta dependent on imported power because Delimara alone would not be able to cope, Dr Gatt said Malta had long had a mentality of dependence, including on oil producers and refiners. He floated the idea of having not only a solitary interconnector but a second one for back-up, which would make for much cheaper electricity than constructing a new power station.

It made strategic sense to ensure non-dependence on either source of power.

A second interconnector could even countenance complete disruption at Delimara.

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