Updated Wednesday at 3.45pm with St Martin's College clarification

Malta was hit with two major power cuts this morning, with Enemalta blaming the interconnector for the outage.

Speaking in Parliament this evening, Minister Konrad Mizzi said the company had to use a combined cycle plant which is on standby at the Marsa power station.

The first outage plunged the whole country in darkness at 1.40am and lasted for four hours.

Just three hours after power was restored, many areas reported a new power cut, which lasted for 45 minutes in most cases. As of 11am, readers in Baħrija, Lija, Mosta, and Rabat said they were still without power. 

Enemalta chairman Frederick Azzopardi told a press conference that according to first indications, heavy rainfall over past few days had penetrated a Ragusa power plant, triggering a circuit breaker which affected the interconnector.

He said the first alarm at the Sicily terminal went off at 10.15pm, with a second alarm sounding at 1.06am and a third at 1.39am, at which point circuit breakers were switched off. 

Mr Azzopardi said electricity generation was shifted to Delimara 1, but shortly after half the supply from that power station was lost.

Power started to be restored at 3.09am and at 3.45am synchronisation with the interconnector began. Synchronisation was completed at 4.30am and power restored to the whole country by 5.35am.

But at around 8.30am around half of the grid load was lost yet again due to another fault at the interconnector, Mr Azzopardi said.

Enemalta engineers would be sent to Sicily to identify the fault and Enemalta would consider firing up the old Marsa plant, which is on cold standby, should problems with the interconnector persist, Mr Azzopardi said. 

Last month, Enemalta also blamed the interconnector to Sicily for another major power cut.

Minister Konrad Mizzi said the new gas power station in Delimara is being tested and in the coming weeks the BWSC plant will start running on gas. By the summer, the shift to gas should be fully implemented, he said.

The second outage, while not nationwide, affected a wide area including Ħamrun Iklin, parts of Birkirkara, Birżebbuġa, Marsa, Rabat, Sliema, Żabbar, and Gozo. Power was restored in many of them after 45 minutes. Other areas reported that the lights dimmed, but stayed on. 

Traffic lights were also affected, commuters reported, adding to the chaos in the streets, amid flooding

Traffic lights in Attard, Msida, St Julian's were also affected, commuters reported, adding to the chaos in the streets, amid flooding.

"The Malta-Italy Interconnector and all local electricity generation sources at Marsaxlokk were shut down as a result of this difficulty," the company said in a statement following the initial power cut. 

"First emergency plants at Delimara Power Station were switched on within an hour and supply to customers started gradually being restored at 3.10am. Enemalta and its contractors also dispatched engineers to the Malta-Italy Interconnector Terminal at Ragusa to assist as necessary.

"The Maltese electricity network, including connection to Sicily through the Interconnector, was subsequently energised as soon as the necessary capacity became available. All areas were reconnected gradually to avoid damaging the national electricity infrastructure." 

The last major blackout was on January 16, when much of Malta was left literally in the dark due to what Enemalta said was a power cut in Sicily that affected the undersea interconnector. 

Exams cancelled, servers down

Parents dropping their children off at St Martin's college in Swatar told Times of Malta they were forced to make alternative arrangements after the power cut forced the school to cancel scheduled examinations. 

"We've been advised to collect our children," one mother sighed. 

When contacted, staff at the college declined to confirm or deny the parents' claims.

A reader in Naxxar said that the power cut had also affected the locality's water supply, while another reader in Swieqi said that the extended double outage had taken out all the servers for her online business. 

Other readers expressed frustration at the power cut having affected their cold stores or even in one case their bed-ridden wife's air mattress. 

St Martin's College clarifies

St Martin's College said today (Wednesday) that examinations were not cancelled but postponed to a later date. Parents, it said, were being informed of alternative arrangements.

The college said parents were not forced to collect their children but given the option to collect them at their convenience.

Power turned off, humour turned on

Enemalta is currently carrying out tests before commissioning the new gas power station at Delimara. Gas was delivered to the facility on January 11. With the power off, humour was turned on. Somebody wrote on Facebook: What was it this time??? The Interconnector, Juveconnector or the Milanconnector?

With the power off, humour was turned on. Somebody wrote on Facebook: What was it this time??? The Interconnector, Juveconnector or the Milanconnector?

A reader told Times of Malta he had been watching the film Where were you when the lights went out? when the lights actually went out. 

Meanwhile, radio stations played the Eurovision song On Again, Off Again.

How has the power cut affected you? Get in touch at mynews@timesofmalta.com