Another year of heavy fuel oil

The decision on whether to have the Delimara power plant extension run permanently on heavy fuel oil, or switch to the cleaner gasoil, has been postponed by 10 months to July 2013.

The planning authority board approved a request to amend the plant’s environmental permit to give the consultants more time to collect data on air pollution generated by the heavy fuel oil.

The permit allows Enemalta Corporation to operate the extension on this type of fuel on the condition it carries out air monitoring and the data is assessed by an independent air quality consultant.

Environment Protection Officer Rachel Decelis gave the reasons for the postponement request.

She said that when the environmental permit, also known as the IPPC, was granted in December 2011, the diesel engines were expected to have been fully commissioned by May 2012.

The air quality data would then be analysed and presented to the planning authority, which would make the decision on which fuel to use by the following September.

However, the extension was not fully operational by May and its engines will only be commissioned this month. Since the air monitoring needed six months, the September deadline would not be met, Ms Decelis said.

Data collection would now end in January and the reports and analysis would be done in February. After that would come a period of consultation, meaning the whole process would only be concluded by June 2013.

Engineer Arthur Ciantar, who represents the local councils on the monitoring committee, said he was in favour of extending the data collection period because it was better to have more information at hand.

He also pointed out that the councils would have preferred a different consultant company to have been appointed, just to “have everything above board and a third opinion”. The present company had been involved in the environment impact report and in the environmental permit.

Martin Attard-Montalto, division manager at Enemalta, said there had been an issue with the filters (as reported in The Times) but added that this had been solved.

There was also a problem with the valves in the ventilation system of the fuel tanks but, by the end of next week, these would all have been replaced.

All the board members voted in favour of the requested postponement except for Labour MP Roderick Galdes.