Theft of electricity from Enemalta Corporation has been brought down by 33 per cent, with resultant improvements in cash flows and financial stability, Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi told Parliament yesterday in reply to several questions from both sides of the House.
There were now 160,000 installed smart meters from the 43,000 there had been at the time of the change of government. New smart meters now being installed would go out if somebody put a magnet to them, and after three times the meter would have to be reinstalled by Enemalta personnel, thus giving the game away.
Dr Mizzi said Enemalta had made concerted efforts to reel in almost €30 million of electricity theft. All files locked away in a room had been acted upon, and payment plans had been drawn up with the account holders. All outstanding cases had been referred to the police, who were still investigating.
The corporation had taken all the necessary administrative steps to have a test control unit and a data warehouse, and a data analytics team had been brought in to help. There was much better compliance even on debt collection. Some bills had not been paid for the past eight years.
Electricity supply to boathouses had been addressed, and whoever was not cooperating would be hard hit.
Enemalta was now in phase 2 of the gas pipeline project
Following improvements to the distribution system in the north of Malta, the corporation was now working on more reforms in the system, with particular eyes on the Sliema area which the minister repeatedly said was overloaded. He could offer no guarantees that there would be no power failures with the summer surges in demand.
Enemalta was now in phase 2 of the gas pipeline project, with a tender issued to identify the route between Malta and Gela in Sicily. Environmental impact assessments had already been ordered.
While work on transforming Delimara 3 to work on gas was still under way, the government was already in talks to eventually do away with the gas tanker planned to be anchored in Marsaxlokk Bay.
Dr Mizzi said the issue of despatch rights from three eventual suppliers was a prerogative of Enemalta, which had set up a new unit for the purpose while an international firm would be monitoring electricity generation on a daily basis. The power purchase agreement was an issue of simple majority rule, with Shanghai Electric Power having only limited influence.
The minister said Enemalta’s losses could be split into technical and non-technical, with 4.5 per cent accounting for the former. Non-technical losses were being addressed in two ways. Some 30,000 accounts had been found locked and 40,000 had not been billed for years.
Enemalta was no longer working in isolation and had an open generation mix, with funds available for investment. Any existing contracts would be easy to switch over to generation from the pipeline once this was completed.
All agreements with Electrogas had been signed except the one on security of supply, where the government needed clearance from the European Commission. The government was ready to oblige if the EC called for any changes to the agreement.
Security of supply had been the reason for the temporary bank guarantee given to Electrogas, as a credit reassurance to banks. Electrogas itself had brought in a consortium of four banks with its own guarantees.
Concluding, Dr Mizzi said Enemalta was doing very well in its open dialogue with the EC.