Enemalta has admitted there may be further brief power cuts lasting minutes at a time, as happened on Sunday, while the interconnector from Sicily remains out of action.
A widespread power cut impacted many homes and businesses shortly before 9pm, despite the power provider’s contingency plan to keep the country running.
Malta has suffered several power outages over the past few weeks, after the undersea cable connecting the island’s national grid to the European energy network was damaged.
Enemalta said last night the damage was caused by a ship’s anchor, which dislodged the cable from the trench on the seabed, snapping it in the process.
Enemalta engineers are now determing the course of action.
Following the incident, Enemalta kicked off a plan, costing €150,000 a day, to power all available turbines to reduce interruptions until the problem is resolved.
Asked why, despite this backup plan, there was still a widespread outage on Sunday, a spokesperson explained that the Delimara IV steam turbine tripped at 8.55pm.
As a result, 18.17 megawatts – 5.5 per cent of the total grid load – were automatically shed, effectively cutting out the power in some areas.
“The shed feeders were subsequently switched on, one at a time. Eight out of the
nine feeders that were shed were switched on by 9.05pm, while the last feeder, with a load of 1MW, was energised at 9.28pm,” the spokesperson explained.
Enemalta was asked whether it was expecting more power outages, and the spokesperson noted that the company had “sufficient generation capacity to cover seasonal peak loads”.
However, as long as the interconnector remained unavailable, generation plant failure might trigger “automatic load shedding in order to maintain system frequency,” he added.
As was the case on Sunday, provided that the sudden loss of generation capacity is not extensive, shed load will be restored within a few minutes, the spokesperson reassured.
In December, Enemalta said it had enough capacity to cater for the increased power demand once factories which were on Christmas shutdown returned to work.
Asked if Enemalta is still confident that it has enough capacity, the spokesperson told Times of Malta that the record winter peak load was registered last year
at 446MW.
Enemalta has a generation capacity of 553MW, which is sufficient to meet expected demand once factories resume normal operations.
In the meantime, residents and businesses have complained of faults in appliances caused by the power cuts, with Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association and the Malta Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises
calling for compensation.
Enemalta’s spokesperson said that as per normal practice, the company considered all consumer complaints it received on a case-by-case basis.