Malta had widespread power cuts on Saturday night, just hours, as it happens, after Opposition leader Simon Busuttil forcefully repeated his party’s claim that the new gas-fired plant built by Electrogas with the solid backing of the government was unnecessary. He argued that the fact that Enemalta coped so well with the record electricity demand in the cold spell of the past few days proved it. With good reason or not, Nationalist Party supporters, and many others too, could hardly be blamed for believing that the two – Dr Busuttil’s remarks and the blackout – were far too coincidental not to raise eyebrows.

However, while there is nothing to justify being suspicious except mere coincidence, in the prevailing keen political environment nothing is being taken at face value any longer. And with a government that has made lack of transparency one of its hallmarks, its moves are being dissected to the bone.  An official explanation for the blackout was not long in coming and, to the surprise of many, it was the bad weather in Sicily that got the blame as, according to Enemalta officials, this caused the interconnector to trip.

Has the official explanation driven the government’s point home that Malta does need the new power station to ensure security of supply? Not quite. The Nationalists are still not convinced and, on the strength of the overall generation capacity available, their argument is quite strong. Perhaps only an authoritative, independent source could provide the answer to the question as to whether the country now needs all this power generation capacity.

Still, the power plant has now been built and, although the controversy over the floating storage unit at Marsaxlokk is unlikely to die out, the discussion will probably to shift to another key issue: the price at which Enemalta will buy electricity from Electrogas. This will be 9c6 per unit when the price through the interconnector varies at between 3c at night and 6c per unit during the day.

Common sense dictates it is preferable to buy through the interconnector but the government, through Enemalta, is bound to take Electrogas’s output for 18 years under a security of supply agreement that has been approved by the European Commission.

Not using the interconnector to its full capacity all the time works against the interests of the consumer, who should benefit from cheaper rates. This was one of the aims that had prompted the previous Nationalist administration to launch the interconnector project in the first place. No wonder the party feels so much aggrieved at the way things have turned out.

The project has been mired in controversy from the start, with the minister leading it, Konrad Mizzi, embroiled in an even stronger controversy: the Panama scandal. The Prime Minister had promised to resign if the power plant was not completed on time. It should have been ready two years ago but Joseph Muscat is still in office. He promised to publish the contracts by the end of the year. He did not and is now saying he will do so shortly. Hopefully, they will not be published in the butchered form as those of the hospitals’ privatisation deal.

It is good the government is now pushing the idea of a gas pipeline with Italy. However, the gas tanker, which, for security reasons, should have been moored outside harbour, is unlikely to disappear any time soon. The bottom line is that, with all the power generation capacity available, the country is still having power cuts.