In its editorial ‘Plunged into darkness’ (August 17), The Sunday Times of Malta was very unfair with successive Nationalist administrations when it stated that “it seems incomprehensible that no proper investment was made in the country’s electricity distribution system”.

One cannot equate what the PN in government did to our electricity generating and distribution system with what the Labour government failed to do.

Let’s put the picture straight. There will be no proper distribution unless the generating system is adequate for the needs of the country.

So it is fair to say that it was the PN in government that invested more than the lion’s share in the generation of our electricity system.

In October 1950, Prime Minister Enrico Mizzi signed a contract with Westinghouse Electrical International Co. for the provision of an electric generation system which was being donated to Malta under the Marshall Aid.

Together with the provision of this generating system, works started on the reconstruction ofthe transmission and distribution systems that made possible the introduction of the three-phase. The PN administration also laidtwo underwater electricity cables between Malta and Gozo. The underground Marsa power station, hewn in the rocks, was inaugurated by Prime Minister George Borg Olivier on December 5, 1953.

As part of Malta’s diversification process from dependence on the expenditure of the British Services Departments, to industry and tourism, a huge infrastructural programme was realised between 1962 and 1971.

In September 1963, Borg Olivier signed an agreement with George Wood, president of the World Bank for a loan towards the construction of a brand new power/water station in Marsa.

Following the 1966 general election, Borg Olivier commissioned the first ‘turbine-generator’ in this new power station which was constructed at a cost of Lm3.7 million, a lot of money considering the time. Suffice to note that the capital expenditure for 1964 was Lm3.8 million.

Following the 1987 general election, and after 16 years of a Labour government, the PN administration headed by Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami embarked on an ambitious project to increase Malta’s generation capacity and to strengthen its distribution system.

A new power station was built at Delimara. Its generating capacity was enhanced further during the last administration headed by Lawence Gonzi, when the BWSC generating plant was installed.

With the assistance of EU funds, the PN government realised the interconnector project between Malta and Sicily which will supply our country with about 25 per cent of our electricity needs.

There will be no proper power distribution unless the generating system can meet demand

Labour in government between 1971 and 1987 only managed to get from Italy three obsolete 1954 turbines, which had to be revamped at a cost to our exchequer double the amount which the PN government had spent on new equipment.

The reinforcement of the distribution facilities to convey the power generated by our power stations to consumers, hoteliers and industry was always a priority to PN administrations. In late 1969, the first section of a new 33KV transmission system from the Marsa power station to the Mosta distribution centre was commissioned.

This served as the national grid for the transfer of electrical energy from the power station to strategic points on the distribution system. At that time there were already three distribution centres at Msieraħ, Mosta and Tarxien with capacities ranging from 30MW to 20MW.

The instability caused by the electricity distribution system which was left to rot in the beginning of the 1980s, and which resulted in regular major electricity cuts, was reversed in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Here again, we went a further step further when a 132KV transmission system was commissioned in strategic localities that serve as electrical distribution centres. At the same time, other distribution centres were built bringing capacity from 150MVA in 1986 to 700MVA in 1995.

Besides, kilometres of tunnels were dug between the power stations and the distribution centres to facilitate the laying of 132KV cables and to do away with unknown stretches of underground wiring.

This is not ‘partisan finger-pointing’ but facts that give the story of our electricity generating and distribution systems since World War II.

Giving credit to whom it is due should be encouraged.

Joe Zahra is a former editor of the Nationalist Party daily In-Nazzjon

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