The Prime Minister yesterday told Parliament that, while the Labour Government immediately embarked on generating electricity through gas, the previous Administration had bought a power station that used heavy fuel oil – the most polluting agent – despite having had three options for changing to gas.
Dr Muscat said the BWSC contract was skewed heavily in favour of the contractor. Independent lawyers and auditors had advised the Government that contesting it would be costly because it had been agreed that any dispute had to be dealt with in a London arbitration tribunal and not according to Maltese law.
The Government did not find any written evidence that the BWSC had accepted to pay for any damages to the extended power station as had been claimed by the Opposition.
The previous government had planned for quasi full electricity generation dependence on the interconnector with Sicily. Experts had told the Government that a new interconnector system between Sicily and Reggio Calabria was needed because the use of the actual interconnector was already saturated and might cause problems.
Before the election, the PN government had taken the political decision to donate €300,000 to the Ragusa local council to end its opposition to the installation of the interconnector.
Dr Muscat rejected Opposition criticism on relying for use of ships for transporting gas to Malta saying that, at present, Malta depended for its fuel and food supplies on sea transport. Incidents had been reported on damages to the underwater fibre optic cable with Sicily.
The Government’s plan was for cheaper utility rates day and night. It would go for an energy mix that included also the interconnector, a gas pipeline and other alternative sources of energy.
Dr Muscat said the Government’s plans on gas generation was in line with the European Council’s conclusions that called for the mobilisation of private capital in the energy sector. Nineteen international consortia had expressed an interest in the Government’s proposal for the power purchase agreement. This meant that EU funds could be freed for other projects.
The gas pipeline remained on the agenda but the Government was not ready to discard other options just to wait for the pipeline. No clear ownership of the pipeline or offshore terminal projects was found.
He was optimistic that this project would qualify for additional EU funds.
The Prime Minister declared that smart meters would not be discarded after spending so many millions of euros. The Water Services Corporation had installed 155,000 smart meters, of which 50,000 were not functioning properly. Another 97,000 meters had still to be installed, mostly in problematic places.
A total of 131,000 smart meters had already been commissioned by Enemalta and another 70,000 had to be installed. There were 50,000 smart meters that did not transmit information properly.
This was no smart strategy, remarked Dr Muscat.
He said the Government was paying €25 million annually to Enemalta as eco contribution, feed-in tariffs and street lighting. This was no subsidy.