All of Malta was without power for some hours last night, after a number of generating units tripped during a maintenance operation, disrupting electricity supply for several hours.

Enemalta said this morning that its technicians and engineers worked throughout the night to restore supply to all areas of Malta and Gozo.

The power failure also led to water cuts in large parts of Malta and Gozo. The Water Services Corporation said it was doing its utmost to restore the water supply as soon as possible.

Enemalta said that a number of generating units tripped at 2.20am, during a switching operation internally in order to carry out planned maintenance on transformers at Delimara Power Station.

The load shedding system automatically attempted to stabilise the frequency however, due to the relatively low load at this time of night, frequency fluctuated causing other generating units to trip. This resulted in a cascading fault that switched the Delimara and Marsa power stations off the grid.

The Corporation immediately started working to restart generating units and re-energise the system.

Electricity supply to strategic locations, such as the Mater Dei Hospital area, was restored soon after. Most localities in the southern part of Malta were reconnected to the grid by 4.30am. Power was restored to all locations, except for a few remote areas, by 6.30am.  

Enemalta thanked its employees for efficiently followed pre-planned procedures provided for such situations to ensure that supply was restored to all areas within a few hours.

While apologising for any inconvenience caused, it reaffirmed its commitment to the provision of reliable and efficient services as required by domestic and commercial customers.