Watching hundreds of visitors queue to visit the Marsa Power Station on a Sunday afternoon rekindled a forgotten sense of pride among Enemalta employees. During the recent open weekend at the plant, personnel eagerly gave the public a glimpse of the complex processes involved in supplying electricity.
Tribute was also paid to the power plants that provided the necessary energy for the country’s development over the past six decades.
Political controversies, a challenging financial situation and the never-ending saga of the oil procurement corruption allegations have left Enemalta with its reputation in tatters.
For years, this entity dedicated its efforts to investment in short-term energy supply and, in the process, omitted to consolidate its resources and secure long-term technical and financial sustainability.
Recent encouraging developments are signalling a definite break with this past and, finally, a much-needed change of direction. A few days ago, Standard & Poor’s endorsed this change by taking Enemalta’s stand-alone credit rating up a notch, the second consecutive improvement following several discouraging earlier reviews.
The commitment of the government, its main shareholder, to re-establish Enemalta as a viable and self-reliant organisation gave the company the impetus to start driving for change.
Without much fanfare, Enemalta has spent the past two years thoroughly reviewing all its operations and services to eliminate losses, increase efficiency and improve results across the board.
This is a new dawn for Enemalta
Perhaps the most significant elements of this long-term plan are the transformation of the entity into a public limited liability company, the introduction of a strategic partner and the development of a corporate mindset which recognises that Enemalta cannot depend indefinitely on government support.
The company is now operating not merely to survive but also to succeed as a profitable concern and it is constantly seeking new ways to improve services, achieve long-term sustainability and increase customer satisfaction.
It also aims to augment revenues without exploiting its advantageous market position to increase tariffs, as happened in the past.
Enemalta and its strategic partners are spearheading the implementation of the national policy decision to replace oil-fuelled power plants with cleaner and more efficient gas-powered units.
The building of the new plant by Electrogas Malta is well underway. This will also result in a reduction of 50 per cent of our emissions and a 90 per cent reduction in the particulate matter.
It is quite remarkable to note that, soon, all electricity required in Malta will be sourced from relatively new plants and via the interconnector.
The oldest plant in operation will be the 2012 Delimara 3 plant, which will be operated by gas. All other units will be either decommissioned or put on standby.
Enemalta last year completed the necessary reinforcements to the electricity grid to end reliance on the Marsa power station (the plant was duly shut down a few weeks ago).
The company also fast-tracked the completion of several other major projects, the completion of new distribution centres to consolidate the electricity grid and the Malta-Sicily interconnector.
The main components of this latter project, including all installations and cables in Sicily and the laying of the 120-kilometre long submarine cable linking our network to the European grid, were completed in 2014.
The system is undergoing final tests and will be fully commissioned soon. At the same time, the company management was tasked with streamlining operations to maximise output at all levels.
Substantial technical and administrative budget savings were achieved. Enemalta also recorded the greatest ever annual reduction in losses from energy theft, cutting down this abuse by 33 per cent. In collaboration with ARMS Ltd, Enemalta has registered a major increase in the recovery of outstanding revenues neglected in previous years.
These results were obtained at the same time as tariffs to residential customers were reduced by 25 per cent.
Further reductions for business customers were announced a few days ago. These reductions will inject €80 million in the economy.
Enemalta’s courageous decisions and hard work are beginning to pay dividends.
True, there is still a long way to go but I am confident that management and employees alike, shareholders and unions and all stakeholders will continue to support this drive, having been encouraged by what has already been achieved in such a short time.
This is a new dawn for Enemalta: the rebuilding of a legacy of which we were once proud.
Fredrick Azzopardi is executive chairman of Enemalta.