PV export meters delay blamed on GWU
Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, who is responsible for Enemalta Corporation at Cabinet level, yesterday blamed industrial action by the General Workers’ Union for the delay in the installation of export meters to investors in photovoltaic...
Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, who is responsible for Enemalta Corporation at Cabinet level, yesterday blamed industrial action by the General Workers’ Union for the delay in the installation of export meters to investors in photovoltaic systems.
Answering a parliamentary question by Labour MP Leo Brincat, Minister Fenech added that the GWU was making “unreasonable” demands on behalf of a small number of Enemalta employees after the functions of the credit control section had become redundant and the management, as it had done on previous occasions, had deployed the redundant employees to other sections with unchanged salary scales and responsibility levels.
In a his question, Mr Brincat referred to the 2,087 applications for the installation of photovoltaic systems, which with a conservative 1.5 kwp system would have yielded a total potential installed capacity of about 3.13 megawatts. Over a year this would have avoided the emission of 4,477 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2). If one considered a feed-in tariff of 25c, the lost generation of electricity would have amounted to €1.29 million.
Mr Brincat asked if any compensation was planned for all those who had invested in, and fully paid up, the installation of photovoltaic systems but had not yet had an export meter installed.
As a consequence, not only was the country paying a financial and environmental price but these investors had technically not yet started to benefit from their investment.
Their photovoltaic systems had either not yet started generating electricity or were illegally connected to the grid without export meters. They were thus being denied the right to claim back the 50 per cent grant on their investments.
In his reply, Mr Fenech added that although the case was being heard by the industrial tribunal, the GWU had refused to suspend the industrial action in spite of knowing the great inconvenience it was causing to consumers. Since the corporation had no control over the delay, the industrial action was holding up the processing of applications and it was impossible to pay the compensation.