Updated 8.26pm with reports of new outages.
Demand for electricity reached a new record of 649MW on Monday, just days after the previous record was set, Enemalta CEO Jonathan Cardona said.
He said the new peak was reached at 2pm as Malta sizzled under record-equalling temperatures for July. According to the Meteorological Office, Monday’s highest temperature reached 42.7°C, equal to the highest ever recorded for July.
Localities across Malta and Gozo have had to contend with eight consecutive days of power cuts during the ongoing heatwave, with blackouts lasting up to 36 hours in many cases.
On Monday evening new outages were reported in parts of Mosta, Naxxar, Sliema, Balzan, Valletta and Birebbuġa.
Enemalta said on Sunday afternoon that power had been restored to all customers impacted by faults on its high voltage cables. But the company recorded five new faults that evening and residents in areas like Dingli, Rabat, Sliema, San Ġwann, Attard, St Paul’s Bay, Żejtun and Gżira all reported being without power that evening.
Speaking during a briefing on Monday, Cardona gave an overview of works being carried out by Enemalta technicians on faults developing on the power distribution grid, saying 60 workers are deployed on the works.
He explained that power cables, which release heat, were further heated due to the hot temperatures of the road, which lead to them being damaged.
He added that although the grid situation was improving, Monday was a very hot day, leading to a heavy load on the power grid.
Over the past few days, Enemalta saw 65 high-voltage cable faults -- 56 in Malta and nine in Gozo. 46 faults have been repaired so far.
He also provided an explanation for the apparent lack of updates on an interactive map of power outages on Enemalta’s website.
"There are people who have suffered from power cuts but are not seeing their locality on the map. The map only shows where there are high-voltage cable faults, not low-voltage cable faults. That means there is a small pocket of people who would not be marked on the map," he said.
‘Our focus is to restore electricity to the people’ - minister
Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said the government's main focus was to improve the energy distribution system in the country, and discussions were ongoing with Enemalta to strengthen resources - both human and monetary. The plan was for 250 substations to be built in the next 6 years
When asked how compensation would be given to businesses and families impacted by the power cuts, she said the main focus now was to ensure electricity was given back to the people.
“We have already said that we will be providing compensation for those impacted and left for hours without electricity,” she said. “Now our focus is to provide electricity and light back to the people. Details on the compensation will be provided in the coming days.”
She said she was aware that people were frustrated, and she shared their frustration. “Their frustration is ours, we are trying to address the problem as soon as possible so that we do not leave people without electricity,” she said.
Five new faults on Sunday evening
Earlier on Monday, Enemalta said that its technicians were continuing to work round the clock to repair faults in the distribution system.
It said some 10,000 man-hours were used in the delicate process of repairing the cables in the past week.
Five faults developed on the network on Sunday evening. In most cases, power was routed to clients through alternative routes and power was therefore restored within three hours.
But that was not possible in parts of Dingli, where power could not be restored before a damaged cable was repaired.
In parts of Żejtun, power was provided by a standby generator while other households will get power restored once repairs are completed.
In Rabat, a fault developed at the termination of a cable and power was shut down automatically to prevent equipment damage at the adjoining substation. Power was restored during the night, the company said.