The Malta Maritime Authority is appealing to boat owners on several pontoons to be aware of their power consumption, after an overload caused damage to the power modules and to equipment on some boats, sources close to the yachting fraternity said.
"The problem is limited to pontoons towards the Black Pearl end, where the larger boats are. Many of these have installed air-conditioning over the past years, and the system was just not designed to take the loads that these require," the yachting sources said.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the yachts have no incentive to use the air-conditioning sparingly, as they are at the moment not charged for consumption of either water or electricity. Yachts in the government-owned marinas only pay a flat rate for the pontoon depending on the length of the boat.
"This means that the air-conditioning is sometimes left running non-stop. They are running up bills of several hundred liri, with no way for MMA to recoup this money," the sources said, with more than a hint of frustration.
"But the problem is not the money but the fact that the cables and modules from which the yachts access the power and water just cannot take the load. The modules need to be upgraded, but unfortunately, MMA is caught in limbo as all the plans are on hold until the government decides how or when to privatise the marinas. It is unlikely that there will be any investment until then."
Other sources in the yachting industry explained that the modules were equipped with circuit breakers to cope with the normal boats associated with normal use, and use 15 amp breakers.
The smallest air-conditioners would cope with this, but anything else would require larger circuit breakers. Some circuit breakers have in fact been replaced with higher rating ones, some of them by the owners themselves, which lets the boat use heavier loads without its power being shut off, but the end result is that the whole system is overloaded and the supply box on the pontoon gets burnt out.
"Recently, one of three phases on a pontoon was burnt out leaving all the boats fed by that particular system without power. The resulting low voltage can also damage the sensitive equipment on board.
"If there is any problem in the system, the heavier load will put more and more pressure on it and eventually something will give.
"Upgrading the system would require considerable investment: not just of the circuit breakers, but also of the cable and switchgear, which could run into thousands of liri.
"Installing meters would probably solve much of the problem as it would make people aware of what they were using, just as it does in their homes," the sources said.