The compensation for households that spent more than 12 hours without electricity between last Tuesday and Wednesday will be of €25 per household, Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi said this afternoon.
Speaking during a tour of the Marsa distribution centre, from where the blackout originated, Dr Mizzi said it was estimated that 8,000 households would be eligible for the comepnsation.
Regarding calls for compensation for businesses, Dr Mizzi said he had discussed the issue with business organisations.
He said he did not think that a nominal €25 was what the businesses needed. €25 made a difference to households as it was equivalent to to 10 days of electricity. But what businesses needed was a reliable power supply, and that was what the government would seek to provide.
Replying to questions, Enemalta CEO Frederick Azzopardi said the cause of the blackout was still being investigated and therefore he could not rule out shortcomings by the corporation itself, or a manufacturing fault in the cable that failed.
He acknowledged that some safety precautions to stop the ripple effect leading to the total blackout had not kicked in, while others which had kicked in were not enough.