Some 8,000 families will receive €25 each in an unprecedented move to compensate them for enduring more than 12 hours without electricity last Tuesday, Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi said yesterday.
He was speaking after the entire island was thrust into darkness for several hours last week. The blackout was caused by a subterranean power cable fault which led to an explosion at the Marsa distribution centre – the largest energy supplier for the southern end of the island.
We are talking about more than a week’s worth of power
Addressing a press conference amid repair works to the distribution centre, Dr Mizzi said Cabinet had agreed on a formula which would see families receive a “reasonable” ex-gratia payment.
The amount, which will be funded by government and not Enemalta, is more than 10 times the average daily domestic consumption rate and will likely be reduced from households’ energy bills.
“This will mean something to those families that were left in the dark. We are talking about more than a week’s worth of power for several households,” he said, adding, however, that the measure was more of a token of good-will than an attempt at compensating consumers.
A large chunk of consumers will not be receiving any handout. Earlier this week The Sunday Times of Malta revealed the government had ruled out businesses from receiving any disbursement, sparking outrage among business leaders.
The Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises had said it would seek all possibilities available at law if compensation remained off the table.
Asked why industry had been overlooked, Dr Mizzi said he had held talks with several unions which had all prioritised the government’s role in providing a stable power supply.
“Businesses don’t need €25, they need a reliable power supply and this is what we will be working towards,” he said.
Mr Mizzi said the government was open to introducing new measures regarding power supply for businesses including a review of the payment system currently in place.
Meanwhile, two inquiries are being conducted into the outage.
Enemalta CEO Frederick Azzopardi, who also attended the press conference, said he would not rule out shortcomings by the State power supplier until an internal inquiry was concluded next month.
“It is still too early to say if anyone was at fault here. We are examining this internally and a separate magisterial inquiry is also under way,” he said.
Mr Azzopardi explained that more than 300 metres of underground cabling surrounding the Marsa centre had been replaced after these developed a number of faults, some of which even cracked open the road surface.
Asked how a wiring fault could have led to an explosion and the subsequent shutdown of the main power station, Mr Azzopardi said safety mechanisms did exist, but these had not all managed to contain the fault.
“There are safety mechanisms to minimise this. Some of them worked as this could have been worse – we could have had enormous damage to the power station,” he said, adding that sabotage had been ruled out.