The building of the extension to the power station at Delimara has been completed and testing has started, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said in reply to a parliamentary question this evening.

He said the testing process includes the testing of the boilers and the steam turbine as well as the emissions filtering system. There are 30 days of reliability testing to ensure that the plant meets the environmental standards set in the IPCC permit granted by Mepa.

The minister said  payments of €157,463,386 have been made to BWSC so far and €8,671,167 directly related to the contract are pending.

The minister said no difficulties in testing have been identified so far. 

RATING DOWNGRADE

Earlier today, ratings agency Standard and Poor's said it was downgrading Enemalta's long-term corporate credit rating  to 'B+' from 'BB'.

"In our opinion,  Enemalta Corp's credit quality is constrained by ongoing delays in refinancing outstanding debt, leading to a continued extension of debt maturities," the agency said.

"We anticipate that Enemalta's financial and operational performance may suffer from volatile commodity markets and its inflexible capital expenditure program.

The corporation was given a negative outlook, which S&P said, reflected its   view that further deterioration of Enemalta's stand-alone creditworthiness may signal weakening government support.

"We could raise our assessment of Enemalta's SACP if the government implements structural changes to Enemalta's remuneration profile, enabling it to pass on rising fuel costs to customers and modernize its inefficient generation fleet," the ratings agency said.