People are stocking up on electric generators and emergency lights following a series of power cuts across Malta over the past few weeks. 

The newspaper knows of at least three ironmongers who ran out of their stock of emergency lights by last week, with one telling Times of Malta that his stocks were depleted before the end of the year.

Considering the holiday period, it was difficult for him to replenish the stock. Clients were still asking for the lights, wary of impending power outages.

The submarine cable connecting the Maltese national grid to the European energy network has been damaged by an anchor, leading to several nationwide or widespread outages. 

Enemalta has admitted there may be further brief power cuts lasting minutes at a time and residents seem to have sprung into action, securing a backup plan.

A spokesperson for Homemate said the hardware superstore has seen a spike in the sales of emergency lights over the past few weeks. 

Other suppliers have meanwhile experienced heightened enquiries about power generators. When contacted, a spokesperson for Zahra Enterprises Ltd said that although they no longer stocked them, they had received several phone calls asking for generators.

Attrans Commercials Ltd have also experienced increased demand and sales of generators since the first blackout.

Others, like Motive Services Ltd, have turned around the unfortunate saga. They are urging their clients to “beat the interconnector” with their high-quality power generator.

When contacted, a spokesperson said he received tens of calls daily, including from small businesses, enquiring about generators, a “substantial” increase over the previous years.