Running at full blast with no smoke and no smell, the Delimara power station extension was given the thumbs up by the Finance Minister yesterday.
Tonio Fenech said the plant will be officially transferred to Enemalta, the state energy company, in two weeks’ time after a 30-day trial run on full power.
Mr Fenech said the plant’s 47 per cent efficiency was more than double the aged Marsa power station and this helped the company save on fuel costs. The efficiency was also relatively high by industry standards.
Engineers explained the eight diesel engines running on heavy fuel oil had each clocked up 1,000 hours of operation since May, saving 18,000 tons of fuel and €10 million had the same energy been produced by the Marsa plant.
However, the higher price of oil this year by far outweighed the savings made on fuel because of higher efficiency, Mr Fenech added.
The Government had subsidised Enemalta to the tune of €25 million earlier this year to ensure electricity tariffs remained static. Mr Fenech did not rule out the Government increasing the subsidy again this year.
In the 30-day trial run, six of the engines were burning low sulphur heavy fuel oil and two engines were run on diesel.
The emission levels for both were the same, engineers explained.
Every day, the exhaust filtering system produces enough hazardous waste to fill one-and-a-half specialised containers with a volume of 31 cubic metres.
The sealed containers are then transported to the Freeport for export.
During a tour of the controversial extension, Mr Fenech invited journalists to note the lack of smoke coming out from the chimneys and the absence of noxious smells. The media party was taken up the iron staircase to the top-floor control room, just below the chimneys.
After suffering some setbacks with the exhaust filtering mechanism during the testing phase, Mr Fenech said Enemalta was now satisfied with the level of emissions and efficiency the plant had achieved.
Emissions, he said, were 20 per cent lower than the limits imposed by the planning authority when it issued an environmental permit.
Mr Fenech said the power station extension was one of 10 projects nominated for the Platts global energy awards for innovation.
“This nomination removes any doubts raised by some as to the type of investment the Government made in this plant,” Mr Fenech said.
The extension has been highly controversial with critics arguing that the Government’s choice of fuel was detrimental to health and the environment.
Mr Fenech said it was the Government’s long-term strategy to shift the power station to gas.
He justified the recent publication of a tender for a study on converting the plant to gas, insisting it was intended to coincide with forthcoming EU budget talks.
The Government wants to tap EU funds for a gas pipeline to mainland Europe. Mr Fenech said the whole project would cost more than €300 million, including the conversion of the existing plants and the infrastructure to deliver and handle natural gas.
He said it will take at least five years to convert Delimara to gas and have the necessary infrastructure in place, adding it was impossible to promise an immediate conversion – a thinly veiled remark aimed at the Labour Party, which has said one proposal to lower utility tariffs is to convert Delimara to gas, which was cheaper than oil.