A power cut affecting Sliema on Friday afternoon was caused by a faulty cable, Enemalta has said. 

Responding to questions, a spokesperson for the company said a high-voltage cable supplying the Sliema substation was to blame for the outage, which left parts of the locality without power from shortly before 3pm. 

The power cut covered much of Sliema earlier on Friday afternoon. Photo: Enemalta.

At the time of publication, Enemalta’s interactive power outage map showed the power cut spanning from Qui-Si-Sana to St Patrick’s school.

The spokesperson said engineers were repairing the damage and that in the meantime, homes would be supplied by alternative cables.

"Power should return soon," he said, adding that parts of Msida and Gwardamanġa had been left without power for similar reasons on Thursday evening but that power had been restored after around 45 minutes.

Sliema was mostly spared during prolonged and repeated power cuts across Malta last year, when power outages persisted for around ten nights.

Those outages occurred during a record heatwave, with authorities blaming the outage on heat damage to underground cables.

In November, Energy Minister Miriam Dalli pledged to spend around €55 million upgrading the energy grid this year, while this month should see a new emergency power plant come online at Delimara.