Power cuts happen. They always have and they always will. If anyone believed that electricity interruptions were going to stop because of a new government, they were being naive.
Of course it doesn’t help that as part of their election tactics the PL shouted so much about the ‘disgrace’ and ‘shame’ of all the power cuts happening under the PN government and said that things would be different when they were in power. This pre-election propaganda was very far from the truth but, to understand it clearly, it makes sense to differentiate between the two different types of power cuts.
First, there are distribution power cuts which, in turn, are split into two. There are power cuts caused by planned maintenance, vital for the distribution network to continue working well.
Then there are unplanned power disruptions. These are generally faults either in cables or within substations or distribution centres. In summer, these tend to be more frequent. They will continue happening, no matter how many gas-fired plants are built or not built.
Secondly, there are the generation power cuts, the sort the very much loved Boiler 7 was well known for. When there is a fault in a generation plant, mechanisms come into play that trip the plant to protect it. Sometimes the change in frequency is so great that it continues to cascade the trip to other generation plants to keep the system safe.
Tripped generation plants take a long time to start back up. So the ideal situation would be not to have a trip in the first place. This is where the interconnector comes in. With its 80 per cent overload capability, it can supply Malta not just with its normal capacity of 200MW but an extra 160MW for up to an hour.
When the generating plant at Delimara fails, the interconnector is there to save the day, kicking in automatically and stopping these trips. This is the real strength of the interconnector. No matter what the Minister for Energy says in the hope of dismissing such a strategic investment, the interconnector has already saved Malta from a few widespread power cuts caused by trips at Delimara. But of course, the public never hears of the positive effects this much needed piece of technology is offering.
The interconnector has already saved Malta from a few widespread power cuts caused by trips at Delimara
The major interruption on August 6 further confirms the need for a second interconnector but it also shows how reliant Malta is on it. The interconnector is being used at almost full capacity, and so it should be! That’s 200MW of cheaper, easier energy. It is also emissions free.
Unfortunately, Konrad Mizzi doesn’t want to believe in it, even though he was on the original board of management when Enemalta started discussing the possibility of an interconnector back in 2006. This is the ugliness of politics. Mizzi was way too quick to issue a press release pointing his fingers at Sicily in an attempt to cast a bad light on the interconnector.
This is not to say that Malta should be solely dependent on the interconnector. It can’t and it shouldn’t be. Under the original Enemalta and government plans, the interconnector was always planned to be backed up by reserve generation plant, which is something required by EU regulations. A country needs to have backup for its largest generating plant.
Mizzi often says that the interconnector has put Malta at a disadvantage because of security of supply rules the EU imposes but the truth is that Malta would have had similar problems with the similar sized gas-fired Electrogas power plant if and when it finally materialises. The difference between the interconnector and the Electrogas plant, or any other generating plant, is that the interconnector, being a static device connected to diverse sources, is much more reliable than a rotating generating plant, especially one which relies on a weak logistical fuel supply system.
But the truth is that the interconnector here wasn’t at fault. From the very limited information provided by Enemalta and the government – so much for being the most transparent government ever –it actually did exactly what it was supposed to do, that is, notice something was wrong and trip to prevent damage. There might have been a fault in Sicily which caused this, and it’s shameful that Enemalta still haven’t released information about what happened in Sicily.
This is very amateurish considering the first thing the executive management of Enemalta had to do was get on the phone to get more information about what caused the trip.
There are several questions Mizzi and Enemalta need to answer. What really caused the interconnector to trip? Was there a fault in the Italian power grid in Sicily or was there a fault in the Enemalta sub-station in Ragusa? If there was a fault in the Italian grid, why was the Enemalta management not informed immediately of the cause of the tripping? Finally, why didn’t Enemalta immediately contact the Italian authorities for an explanation?
The public deserves to know the answers because saying Enemalta “stopped receiving electricity through the interconnector” is simply not enough, and frankly quite insulting.
Mel Hart is a former communications coordinator at Enemalta Corporation.