The energy sector has been central to Malta’s political rises and falls, for decades. Its controversies are not just minor blips in the political life of the country. The sector has repeatedly played an influential, possibly determining, role in the outcome of national elections and the careers of senior politicians.
The energy sector was prominent in the run-up to the general election of 2013, which resulted in a landslide win for the Labour Party after a long period of Nationalist administration. This was a seismic shift in Malta’s political geography. There were, of course, also other factors involved but cheaper and cleaner electricity generation and the power stations of Marsa and Delimara were main battle cries in Labour’s campaign.
Marsa had already been under the spotlight for years with the ‘Black dust’ controversy. A dedicated parliamentary committee was set up in 2010 to investigate this matter, probing whether the black dust deposited on balconies, rooftops and floors in Fgura and nearby areas was due to the power station or, possibly, some other source, such as traffic or even fireworks.
The Marsa power station had additional big problems as it functioned well over the deadline established by the EU for its technology and was subject to substantial fines over the last years of its existence until it was finally decommissioned.
Then, just before the general election of 2013, the fuel procurement scandal at Enemalta was revealed, involving its most senior officials. Besides court proceedings, the scandal was probed by a parliamentary committee and it also played an influential part in the run-up to the 2013 election.
At around this time, two other major energy projects were implemented – the interconnector linking Malta’s grid to Sicily and the so-called BWSC power station at Delimara, running on heavy fuel oil. That Delimara plant was another major controversy in the energy sector and a Labour trump card in the electoral campaign of 2013.
What about a second interconnector, is that still somewhere on the cards or not?
Labour came into power and revealed their plan to build a new power station fuelled by gas. To this day, pressing questions are being asked about when and with whom this proposal was first explored by politicians. And, this time, the questions are not emerging in the sittings of a parliamentary committee but through the public inquiry into the assassination in 2017 of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. The fact that her murder followed the leaking to her of a large cache of internal e-mails from Enemalta is part of that backdrop.
As is well-known, in late 2019, this ugly and tragic episode led to the political downfall of former prime minister Joseph Muscat and his two close associates, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi. Their rise to power in 2013, as well as their fall, just over six and a half years later, are darkened by the long shadows of the energy sector. Before politics, one of Mizzi’s first jobs was chief information officer at Enemalta.
And what is the situation now? The shift from heavy fuel to gas was environmentally beneficial. The big controversy of the gas power station was never the switch to cleaner fuel. Initially, it was the berthing of the LNG storage tanker in the bay of Delimara, due to concerns about potential safety hazards.
It was promised that the LNG tanker would be removed once a new gas pipeline is built, which was touted to be operational by around 2024. But, this month, it became known that Malta’s current application for EU funding was unsuccessful. For the time being, the pipeline is in danger of morphing into a pipe dream. Nothing is ever what it seems in Malta’s energy strategy.
Miriam Dalli was communications advisor to Mizzi when he was overseeing plans for the new gas power station as energy minister. Today, she is energy minister herself. In response to the EU’s turning down of the request for funding, Dalli promptly assured us that the pipeline will still happen, albeit funded by other means. She noted that this could mean tapping into different sources of EU funds and, possibly, in combination with other sources of finance.
Assuming this is possible, what could it mean in practice? The change in funding sources presumably means delays with the pipeline and that the LNG tanker will therefore be berthed at Delimara for a longer period than first stated. What is the new estimated timeframe?
The EU is pushing for a shift to hydrogen for energy generation, away from fossil fuels including gas. Dalli says that the pipeline can fit in with this by being ‘hydrogen-ready’. What does that mean? Does it imply more costs and delays? And what about a second interconnector, is that still somewhere on the cards or not?
Given the dark history, repeated messes, scandals, alleged crimes and plain bad planning that have been at the heart of this sector for decades, full transparency and clarity should be provided on the latest developments and current plans for Malta’s future in energy.