Updated 10pm

Electricity supply has been restored to all areas impacted by faults in Enemalta’s cables, the company said in a statement on Sunday afternoon.

While not all high-voltage cable faults have been repaired yet, Enemalta said households and businesses impacted by them are now being powered through alternative cable connections or temporary generators.

“The company registered more than 60 high voltage cable faults and other network difficulties since Monday. Several technical teams will continue working round the clock, until all damaged cables can be re-energised,” Enemalta said.

“In the meantime, other teams of Enemalta technicians will continue to respond to requests for assistance from customers impacted by smaller faults that may affect individual buildings, parts of a street or similar small areas.”

Customers can report faults online, by calling 8007 2224 or by calling the Servizz.Gov Helpline 152.  

Despite Enemalta's assurances, residents in parts of Attard, Birkirkara, Gżira, San Ġwann, Sliema and St Paul's Bay all reported having no power on Sunday afternoon and evening. 

At 3pm, an interactive map on Enemalta’s website showed that there were no live outages on the national grid. As of 9pm, the map indicated localised problems in a part of St Paul's Bay and a part of Żabbar.

However, it is not clear how accurate the map is: in previous days, the map did not always accurately reflect all ongoing power cuts across the island.

Day seven of power cuts

Sunday marked the seventh day with nationwide electricity issues. Problems with the national electricity grid began to surface early in the week, as temperatures climbed into heatwave territory and demand for power spiked, breaking the national record twice in the past six days.

Practically every part of the country was impacted at some point. In some localities, power cuts lasted for almost two days; others were affected by intermittent power. 

The hours-long blackouts have forced people to sleep outside or on floors in an attempt to cope with the heat, restaurants to turn away customers, supermarkets to throw away defrosted products and in some cases, tourists to check out of hotels in frustration.

The Active Ageing Ministry is providing a respite service for those over 65 to spend the day in air-conditioned state-run care homes and Energy Minister Miriam Dalli has said the government will be looking into ways to compensate affected people.

Frustration was further compounded by an apparent overload of Enemalta's customer service hotline. Ostensibly a 24/7 service, consumers reported spending hours on end trying to get through to a company representative over the phone. 

The anger led to some ugly scenes. According to the General Workers Union, Enemalta workers had eggs hurled at them as they carried out repairs. The GWU failed to specify where or when the alleged assault occurred.

It was good news for generator suppliers, however: one business told Times of Malta they had received more customer requests in one week than they usually do in an entire year.

Saturday night repairs

Enemalta has blamed high temperatures for damaging a number of its underground cables and said repairs take time as engineers must dig into the ground to access cables before repairing them.

On Saturday night, the company’s repair teams completed repairs on a high-voltage cable in Attard, bringing power back to parts of Rabat, Dingli and Mtarfa. Separately, the company also fixed a cable supplying parts of Nadur.

Enemalta said that while it had re-routed power to affected areas whenever possible, in other circumstances it could not do so and had instead relied on large generators as a standby power system.

In the past days the company has used such generators to reduce outage times in Żabbar, Żurrieq, Dingli, Msida, Żebbuġ, Mellieħa and Għajnsielem, it said.

According to the Met Office, the current ongoing heatwave will continue at least until Tuesday.

The office has issued a red warning, alerting people that thermometers will on Sunday will read a maximum of 41°C but it will actually feel as hot as 43°C. 

Did we miss a power cut? Do you have a story to tell about the blackouts? Get in touch at newsroom@timesofmalta.com