Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi has finally acknowledged that the new Delimara gas plant will not be up and running by the target date of March 2015.

The new date will be announced towards November though the minister did not give target indications yesterday.

The declaration comes after the Prime Minister set the ball rolling on Friday when he answered a question regarding the completion of the power plant by pointing out the government’s plan to reduce water and electricity bills “does not depend on the gas plant becoming operational in March of next year”.

Dr Mizzi spoke to The Sunday Times of Malta in a brief telephone interview from Beijing, where he is meeting officials from the Shanghai Electric Power (SEP), which is investing €320 million in the energy corporation. He said work on the new plant has been held up by three-way talks between Enemalta, Electrogas – the contractor responsible for the new power station – and Shanghai Electric in relation to the way the new gas power station will interface with the BWSC plant. Under the agreement with the Chinese energy giant, SEP would buy 33 per cent of Enemalta but would have a controlling 70 per cent of the BWSC plant, which it will convert to gas, through new investment.

Labour’s energy plan became especially politically charged after the Prime Minister pledged to step down should his government fail to deliver during an electoral campaign activity.

Yesterday’s disclosure comes after months of government insistence that everything was on track, despite little signs of progress on the ground in Delimara. Late in July, both the minister and Electrogas dismissed as speculation a report claiming that the plant was expected in March 2016.

Dr Mizzi had told Times of Malta the plant would be delivered “according to contractual obligations”. The statement was a play with words seeing Electrogas is bound to deliver the plant within 18 months from being given the go-ahead and not by a date.

Dr Mizzi said yesterday: “As such, it cannot be said that the contractors are late. They are bound with a very strict 18-month deadline for the delivery of the power station.” The ticking clock, he said, when pressed, was halted by these new talks. “Shanghai Electric asked Electrogas for certain modifications on how the new gas plant will interface with the BWSC plant which they will take over at the end of the year.

‘Shanghai Electric asked for modifications’

“Enemalta, on the other hand, is going through these modifications to see they are acceptable. This project had to account for the fact there is now a new stakeholder... I would say we will be in a position to give a date when the gas plant will be operational at the end of November,” he said.

He insisted that work was not completely idle, and that important civil engineering works had been carried out at the site. Simultaneously, the turbines were being built and would be brought to Malta ready. However, he was keen to point out the “bigger picture” yesterday.

Labour’s plan to deliver cuts on water and electricity bills (to households by March 2014 and businesses by March 2015) hinges on a seven-year business plan of which, the new plant is just one of four building blocks.

The partnership with the Chinese energy giant, he said, was important to address Enemalta’s huge, crippling debt, which was having an overbearing effect on the country’s finances. Moreover, he insisted that the past year or so had seen operational improvements with a new management team.

“In the past five months, we have consistently collected €4 million more every month than we have billed and the loss for the year will be €20 million less than what we projected,” he said.

He said work on the interconnector was back on track again after having been bogged down due to problems with permits on the Italian side and should be completed by the end of the year.

“We will be reducing water and electricity bills for businesses by March 2015 because Enemalta is in a very good position to do it,” he said.

Still, as a politician, he had insisted, both during and after the electoral campaign that a March 2015 delivery date was realistic in the face of statements by independent experts to the contrary.

Does he regret making that statement now?

“If I look at where we are now in terms of the bigger picture concerning Enemalta and compare it to where we were right after the election, I would say it has exceeded my expectations,” he said.

Attempts to contact Electrogas yesterday proved unsuccessful.