More studies on the safety of the new Delimara power station will have to be carried out after the planning authority clears the development.

This was confirmed by an Enemalta spokesman in the wake of concerns raised by Dutch expert Hans Pasman who told Times of Malta that some safety aspects of the planned gas-fired power station warranted more detailed studies.

He said he based his arguments on the quantitative assessment report issued last month as part of the environmental impact statement of the new power station. This report will be on the agenda of a public hearing set for today at the Marsaxlokk primary school.

Questions about the validity of the risk assessment study were also raised by the Marsaxlokk and Birżebbuġa local councils. They argued that the software model used to analyse the gas cloud dispersions was based on a meteorological data for the Spanish port of Cartagena, which bore no resemblance to Marsaxlokk bay.

The Enemalta spokesman said that the corporation was working closely with Electro Gas Malta, the bidder chosen to build the new plant. He said all concerns related to the facilities and their safe operations had been discussed with Electro Gas and tackled.

The corporation said that the safety of customers, employees and the public was paramount. “In fact, following the current process, further risk studies will be undertaken as part of the integrated pollution prevention and control permitting procedure,” the spokesman said.

The safety of customers, employees and the public was paramount

Electro Gas Malta said the concerns raised by Prof. Pasman had been noted. It said the consortium had provided all information requested by Enemalta and its consultants to be able to address various issues including the safe operation of the facilities and their impact on the environment.

“We believe that all the concerns raised in the article [that appeared on Times of Malta last week] have been addressed in the EIS,” the spokesman said.

He added that, in formulating the technical specifications, Electro Gas Malta had kept safety as its utmost priority using the most appropriate technology available and putting in place systems to ensure the safe operations of the site.

The spokesman declined to comment further, noting that Enemalta was the entity that commissioned the EIS.

According Prof. Pasman, the decision to have a large storage facility of 140,000 cubic metres adjacent to the generation plant was questionable due to its close proximity to inhabited areas. He also raised the point that, to date, there were no scientific studies on the hazards posed by such quantities of LNG and that it was rather “presumptuous” of the report to state that any effects would not reach inhabited areas.

He also argued that insufficient weight was given to the possibility that a cloud of leaked gas from the storage facility would get sucked up by the combustion engine, with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Prof. Pasman called for a more detailed maritime risk assessment, remarking that the risks of ship-to-ship collisions were tackled in a very rudimentary way by the report.