Large swathes of St Julian’s were left without power on Thursday afternoon, with an Enemalta live outage map attributing the fault to a “high tension outage”.  

Enemalta's website did not provide any detail about when it expected power to be restored, though according to Facebook posts, some users in affected areas said their electricity was restored by around 3:30pm.  

The outage follows overnight power cuts in St Julian’s, Swieqi, Msida, Birkirkara and Santa Venera, after faults developed on two high-voltage cables supplying the localities, according to Enemalta. 

The recent power cuts amid high temperatures have stoked fears of a repeat of last summer’s rolling blackouts which lasted for 10 consecutive days during a sweltering heatwave. 

On Monday, a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) concluded that last summer’s power cuts occurred against a backdrop of lacklustre investment in the country’s infrastructure.  

NAO figures showed that every year since 2015, Enemalta had failed to invest the full amount allotted to the electricity grid, in many years investing only around half the allocated amount. 

When contacted, a spokesperson for Enemalta confirmed the outage had occurred due to a fault that had developed on a high-voltage cable supplying power to the area. 

Have you been affected by the outage in St Julian’s? Contact us at newsroom@timesofmalta.com or on Facebook or Instagram.