Power outages in five localities on Wednesday night were caused by faults on two high-voltage underground cables, according to Enemalta.

Parts of Swieqi and St Julian’s lost power at around 9.50pm, with areas of Msida, Birkirkara and Santa Venera following suit at around 11.05pm.

They are the latest areas hit by sporadic power outages amid high temperatures.

When contacted, a spokesperson for the energy company said the outages had been caused by faults on two high-voltage cables; one supplying Swieqi and St Julian's and the second in the other affected areas.

The spokesperson said power to Swieqi and St Julian’s was fully restored within 45 minutes, while the outage affecting Msida, Birkirkara and Santa Venera took around two and a half hours to repair.

Asked about the cause of the faults, the spokesperson ruled out fire damage – as attributed to an outage across Gozo on Tuesday evening – due to the cables being underground but said faults could occur for a variety of reasons.

He said repairs were underway on Thursday morning, adding that electricity had been restored to the affected areas on Wednesday night by rerouting power through alternative cables.

Last Friday, large swathes of Sliema were left without power after Enemalta said a fault developed on a high-voltage cable supplying the area, while Mellieħa suffered outages on Wednesday afternoon as Enemalta engineers ran tests on cables in the area. 

And last month, power went down across the country when the Malta-Sicily interconnector was switched off for maintenance works on the switchgear at the Magħtab terminal station.

Power outages have become a sensitive topic in Malta after waves of power cuts amid a searing heatwave last summer left residents across the country without light, air conditioning and adequate food storage capabilities for days. 

Energy Minister Miriam Dalli later announced electricity grid upgrades worth €55 million, and last month told Times of Malta “the works carried out in the past few months... are leading us to not experience power cuts that we experienced last year”.

However a National Audit Office report said the powercuts occured against a backdrop of Enemalta's under-investment in the electricity grid.

Figures show that since 2015, Enemalta has consistently invested less than had been allocated for the grid, many years investing only around half the allocated amount.

Where are outages planned today?

According to the Enemalta website at the time of publication, there are 10 outages planned for Thursday affecting some streets in the following areas:

• Attard (7am-12pm) 
• Balzan (8am-1pm)
• Mosta (7am-11:30am)
• Żejtun (8am-12pm and 7pm-9pm) 
• Ghajnsielem, Gozo (8am-12pm)
• Valletta (04:30am-08:30am)
• Santa Luċija (07:30am-11am)
• Birkirkara (8am-1pm)

Have you been affected by an unplanned power cut? Reach out to us at newsroom@timesofmalta.com or on Facebook and Instagram.  

PN demands transparency from Enemalta, Miriam Dalli

The Nationalist Party on Thursday called on Enemalta and Energy Minister Miriam Dalli to clearly explain the cause of repeated power cuts, particularly what caused a fire which blacked out Gozo two days ago.

Shadow minister Ryan Callus said Enemalta was being dry in its explanations, creating further doubts instead of peace of mind among consumers. 

He said that it was unacceptable that information was being hidden, even on the corporation's own website which was meant to record power cuts.