Enemalta asked to say what it would do about power cuts

The Labour spokesman on Enemalta, Joe Mizzi, has called on the corporation to   explain what it will be doing about the repeated power cuts reported in many localities this summer.

In a statement, Mr Mizzi said the power cuts showed how the government had not invested enough in the power distribution system and the system could  not cope with demand.

Indeed, had it not been the case that the high power rates were restricting power consumption, there would have been more faults.

Mr Mizzi said the frequent and long power cuts were detrimental to the people in general as well as businesses and tourism..

He said there were five reasons for the current situation:

The first was high demand which the distribution system could not cope with because of poor investment planning.

Furthermore, many of the cables were old and needed to be replaced.

Thirdly, damage was also caused by uncoordinated road works by private contractors, a situation which could be avoided.

There were also problems in the joints of several cables, and it was clear that cables which had several joints should be replaced.

Lastly, a problem was caused by the fact that low voltage cables were buried in the ground rather than passed through ducts. The current practice, while cheaper than using ducts, was not sustainable, Mr Mizzi said.

He said Enemalta should give a credible explanation of the current situation, and what it would do about it.