The government has been caught in another lie, PN deputy leader Mario de Marco said this afternoon as he described the government's latest announcement that it would buy its first electricity from gas-fired generating plants in June 2016 "a Chinese excuse on its failure".

In the Nationalist Party's first reaction, Dr de Marco slammed the government on another failed promise.

Addressing a news conference he said the government had been caught in another lie as it had promised everyone that the power station would be built by March.

Dr de Marco said that the government did not even commit itself to the new June 2016 date as it was now stating it expected to buy its first electricity by then, almost a year-and-a-half later than promised.

"The government has once again been caught deceiving people. This is another admission..." Dr de Marco said.

He called on the government to explain how the reduced tariffs would be financed now that the deadline had been missed.

He also called on the government to say what price the government would be paying for this deal and whether it would have made more sense to buy electricity through the interconnector.