Enemalta ordered to explain abnormal demand

The Finance Minister is seeking specific details as to what led to a sudden spike in electricity demand that left various parts of Malta in pitch darkness for four hours on Good Friday because Enemalta's investigation did not establish this.

The investigation, ordered by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech and conducted by Enemalta chief executive officer Karl Camilleri, did not delve into what caused the abnormal demand, a ministry spokesman said when contacted.

The intention of the report demanded by the minister was not to determine what caused the spike but what Enemalta could do for the blackout not to happen again, the spokesman added. Hence, the ministry had asked for more details to establish the cause.

The spokesman said the report would not be published in full because it was an internal document.

According to the report, parts of which were released in a ministry statement on Tuesday, between 7.27 and 7.37 p.m. on Good Friday, demand increased by 11.5MW, more than double the spare capacity that stood at 5MW.

Enemalta admitted it did not have enough spare capacity to deal with such an abnormal increase in electricity demand, which led to the power outage. It was the second in 11 days and the fourth in almost a year.

According to the investigation, when the power failed, both power stations were generating 210MW of power and Enemalta had 5MW of reserve energy readily available to cater for any increase in demand. However, when the demand spiked, this was double what it had anticipated and the whole set-up collapsed.

The report recommended reserve capacity to rise from 5MW to 10MW in order to ensure a better security margin in the eventuality that demand increased unexpectedly.

Another recommendation was to ban the possibility of unions issuing directives that limited communication between workers in the corporation's electricity generation section. On this, the General Workers' Union said it was unacceptable that workers were always held responsible for a power cut. It deplored how Enemalta's management tried to blame the outage on its industrial action when the directives did not apply to the engineers.

The union said Enemalta's report on the power cut could not be taken seriously because it was prepared by people with a possible conflict of interest.

The GWU said it would not allow anyone to cast doubts and suspicions on the workers who were following its directives. The power cut, it said, reflected lack of investment, which had already been highlighted in a report commissioned in 2006 and which had forecast power cuts if no proper investment was made in the generation of electricity.

The union thanked the employees for tirelessly working, sometimes putting their lives in danger, to return the electricity provision to normal in the shortest possible time and promised to continue safeguarding their interests.

The Malta Employers' Association also commented on Enemalta's report, saying its conclusions did not put anyone's mind at rest that such power cuts would not happen again. It said such power cuts were inexcusable and caused severe problems to business.

While lauding the government for demanding an explanation, the employers said this had to be followed up with concrete action.

"Whether it is a result of incompetence, strained industrial relations or an ageing infrastructure, the government can do nothing less than guarantee a regular electricity supply to businesses and consumers. Rather than technical reports, this is what really matters," the MEA said.