The interconnector to be inaugurated tomorrow by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was a concrete example of how the Nationalist Party can make a difference in people’s lives, Energy Shadow Minister Marthese Portelli said today.
The PN was the party that had the vision, acquired the funds and started the project’s implementation, while the Labour Party’s energy plan was still invisible, she added.
“The PN was, is and will remain optimistic. It was this optimism that gave birth to the plan for the interconnector for Malta,” Dr Portelli said.
She said the average price the government was paying for electricity from the interconnector was 6c, questioning why the government committed to paying 9.6c for electricity from Electrogas for a minimum of 18 years. A new power station was not needed, she added.
She also referred to the transfer of public land at 50c per square meter for use of PV panels, saying this was creating discrimination as Maltese businesses had to pay €3.35c per square metre.
“The government’s commitments to the Chinese government have rendered Maltese entrepreneurs second class citizens,” she said.
Planning spokesman Ryan Callus referred to the 11 contracts revealed by the PN yesterday, which he said showed how the PL government works.
The contracts were all signed on August 25 in a marathon session that lasted until 4am. This was two days before the government published legal notices removing the obligation on Enemalta to go to Parliament if it transferred land to third parties.
One of the deeds involved the transfer of 310,000 square metres of public land for 25 years for the installation of PV panels.
Opposition talks, government delivers - ministry
But in a reply, the Energy Ministry said it was its plan for energy that was delivering results and had been lauded by international credit rating agencies.
The interconnector, it said, was an important component of Malta’s energy mix and would complement the new clean gas fired generation engines. However, these engines would provide cheaper, cost-effective and reliable electricity supply at a fixed price.
The ministry said the Opposition continued to demonstrate its lack of credibility in the sector when it quoted interconnector prices in the Italian market without taking into account other charges and expenses that should be considered in the final price.
These included congestion charges for the transmission of electricity to Sicily; transmission losses; energisation costs; transaction charges; capital costs; financing costs for the infrastructure; and variable prices.
But the country could not rely solely rely on the interconnector for its electricity supply.
“It is worth noting that our Italian partners have contractual rights to restrict supply when the conditions require so in their country… In the last weeks, our supply from Italy was restricted to 30MW during the day and 50MW during the night due to maintenance works in Sicily,” it said.
The ministry said that should the interconnector experience failures on land or at sea, the issue could take months to resolve.
“As a country we cannot be solely dependent on circumstances outside our control,” it said.
It said that although the previous government started work on this project, it failed to see it through and postponed the target dates for completion more than once.
In spite of all the difficulties the previous government left unresolved, the majority of works were carried out by this government last year, the ministry said.
It added that this was yet another case where the Opposition talked and the government delivered.