Photo: Matthew MirabelliQajjenza, in Birżebbuġa, was earmarked by Enemalta’s predecessor for a new 300 megawatt power station, according to a 1969 Cabinet memorandum.
The site was inspected two years earlier by the Malta Electricity Board and included in a shortlist of six locations.
St Thomas Bay, in Marsascala and Qrejten Point, in Marsaxlokk had also made the shortlist.
In a case of déjà vu, the memorandum shows that the problems associated with locating a power station somewhere along the shores of Marsaxlokk port existed then as they do to this very day.
The memorandum was submitted to Cabinet in March 1969 by then industry minister Ġużi Spiteri as part of a forward-looking exercise undertaken so his ministry would “not run the risk of being criticised for insufficient planning”.
At the time, an extension to the Marsa power station was under construction but Dr Spiteri noted that electricity growth projections showed additional generating capacity would be required by 1978, a decade later.
He said the Marsa site would be fully utilised by 1975 and was unsuitable for the construction of a new 300MW plant, known as Power Station C.
From the six locations studied by the Malta Electricity Board, St Thomas Bay and Rdum il-Bies, in Mistra, were ruled out because they carried tourist potential while two sites at Bengħajsa and Kalafrana, Birżebbuġa, were deemed inadequate because of a planned free port in the area.
With two sites left, the electricity board chose Qajjenza over Qrejten Point, where the hard-standing facilities for fishing boats are currently situated.
The memorandum spelled out what Dr Spiteri described as “clear indications” that the southern part of the island was to be developed for industrial purposes.
“Especially in the light of the proposed Free Trade Zone around Marsaxlokk Bay, the focus of the electrical load should, it is felt, move southwards,” he wrote.
Dr Spiteri noted the public works director had expressed his ministry’s objection to any of the sites in the Marsaxlokk and Birżebbuġa area.
“In the light of the foregoing, it is clear that an impasse has been reached,” Dr Spiteri wrote, urging Cabinet to decide on the site so that planning could start.
The power station was never built there and, under the next three successive Labour administrations starting in 1971, the Marsa plant’s generating capacity was increased.
The improvements were not enough to satisfy a growing demand and, in the wake of frequent power outages, it was a Nationalist administration that returned to the subject in 1987 when a new power station was built at Delimara.
The memorandum forms part of Cabinet papers that were made available at the National Archives.