More power cuts reported

More power cuts were reported today, just a day after Enemalta resolved all of yesterday's with works continuing throughout the night as the breakdown proved to be a tough challenge.

The corporation said in a statement this afternoon that the cables in the Valletta/Marsa area have been heavily stressed over the past months as a result of repeated faults caused by road works contractors, and these have aggravated weak spots in the cable insulation.

Over the past weeks the ambient temperatures have been increasing and the ground surrounding the cables has been drying out. As a result the cables are operating at a higher temperature, which is usual for this time of year.

However, all these conditions are resulting in a number of cable faults as the insulation fails at the weak spots. Yesterday, this led to a high fault current which caused all the subsequent faults.

The corporation said that at around 2.39 a.m. some feeders in the south had to be switched off to reconnect an overhead line cable which had to be repaired. Supply was once again restored at 4.09 a.m.

In an unrelated event, another fault developed in a 33kV cable from Delimara to the Tarxien Distribution Centre, causing a power cut in parts of Żejtun, Gudja, Tarxien, Fgura, Żabbar, Xagħjra, Vittoriosa, Cospicua, Senglea, Kalkara, Marsa and Luqa.

The fault occurred at 1.26 p.m. and supply was restored in less than an hour at 2.21. A high tension fault also occurred in Gżira at around 4 p.m., and should be restored in the coming hour.

Enemalta apologised for the inconvenience and reiterated that the extraordinary circumstances which caused these faults.

It thanked all the employees who worked hard to restore supply in the shortest time possible.