A fixed price for electricity over a 10-year time span was possible, Labour candidate Konrad Mizzi insisted yesterday.
He was reacting two hours after Finance Minister Tonio Fenech tore into the Labour Party’s energy plan with a detailed presentation.
Dr Mizzi said the power purchase agreement model a Labour Government would adopt with the private operator of a gas-fired plant would offer enough guarantees to make this a safe investment.
He rebutted Mr Fenech’s assertion that no company would want to hedge its gas supply for 10 years, adding gas was not normally bought by hedging agreements.
“Fixed price contracts are being done for 10 years because the operator will enter into a gas supply agreement with a supplier, guaranteeing the purchase of a set volume of gas for a number of years,” he explained, adding that the minister did not know what he was talking about.
Dr Mizzi took umbrage at Mr Fenech’s claim that the new power station included in the Labour plan was not needed.
“I cannot understand this argument of overcapacity because the minister seems to be ignoring EU rules that say a country has to have a spare reserve of energy equivalent to double the largest source,” Dr Mizzi said.
The country had to make sure it had enough capacity to generate electricity domestically if something happened to the interconnector, he added.
Dr Mizzi defended the costings for the infrastructural projects included in the Labour plan, adding that they were drawn up by Dutch consultants Kema and based on international standards.
He rebutted Mr Fenech’s assertion that the gas supply ships would have to be bought by the company at a phenomenal cost. “You only buy the gas and then make shipping arrangements the same as is being done today with oil,” he said.
He also quoted a post by environmentalist Edward Mallia under a timesofmalta.com story in which the University professor said the purchase of ships was not neces-sary and showed Mr Fenech’s “incompetence” in energy matters.
ksansone@timesofmalta.com
Konrad Mizzi. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi