MUZA gallery forced to close as part of Valletta remains without power

The MUZA art gallery has announced it will remain closed on Thursday due to an ongoing power cut in Valletta.

In a post on social media, the museum on Merchants Street apologised for the inconvenience and thanked people for their patience.

"We look forward to welcoming you back as soon as normal operations can resume."

The Enemalta map showing real-time outages currently shows an outage affecting the area surrounding the museum, and includes the Office of the Prime Minister, Spazju Kreattiv and part of the Central Bank.

Part of Valletta remained without power on Thursday morning. Photo: Enemalta

Valletta bore the brunt of the blackouts on Wednesday, with court proceedings, including the trial of Yorgen Fenech grinding to a halt as the power went out.

The disruption to the power grid, which the government blamed on record high temperatures and record electricity demand also brought a UEFA Conference League match to a halt on Tuesday.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Met Office said the worst of the heatwave appeared to be over, although high temperatures would persist.

Enemalta said it was caught off guard by the “alarming” demand on the grid and record-high temperatures. 

A spokesperson for the agency said it had addressed several of the major faults that had impacted power supply across several towns, from Birkirkara to Fgura, Luqa and Gudja, in previous days.

However, a cable fault in the Valletta area had developed, blocking the city’s main power supply.

The spike in temperatures saw the public take drastic measures to cope with the power cuts, including sleeping in their cars, booking hotel rooms and seeking shelter in cafes with their young children.