Adds comment on video about calls for compensation.

Enemalta has enough power generation capacity to meet demand, Enemalta chairman Alex Tranter insisted at a press conference today.

He said, however, that the corporation could not guarantee that yesterday's blackout would not happen again, and no electricity provider anywhere in the world could give such a guarantee.

Giving an overview of what happened yesterday, the chairman said that a boiler at the Marsa power station tripped at 10.30 a.m. That had a domino effect on the remaining machines which could not take all the load.

Boilers, Mr Tranter said, had a self protective system shutting them off in case of overloads.

Power at the Marsa station was restored at 11.07 a.m. Power was restored to 50 percent of localities by 2.30 p.m. and by 4 p.m. to 95 percent of Malta and Gozo.

As the power was being restored to the remainder, the second trip happened at 4.01 p.m. and the power stations were back to square one.

All indications showed that the problem was with Boiler 9 at Marsa.

Mr Tranter said that the trip could have been one of two possible problems - the fuel system or the engine's combustion.

While tests showed that it was not the fuel system, the corporation was now embarking on a 10-day investigation of the engine's combustion.

Mr Tranter pointed out that Boiler 9 was being used again today but its load was five megawatts instead of yesterday's 31.

Mr Tranter said power demand yesterday was 323 megawatts and a peak of 400 megawatts was expected this summer.

This was demand which the corporation could meet because four turbines - two at Marsa and two at Enemalta, were not in use yesterday.

Those at Marsa had been undergoing maintenance while those at Delimara were getting a major overhaul.

The last similar blackout, with a double trip, was on November 2, 1996. The first blackout was between 8.55 a.m. and 1.30 p.m., the second from 2.55 to 6.30 p.m. The problem on that day had been at the Delimara power station.