Updated 4pm, with new reports of outage

Enemalta customers were left hanging on telephone support lines on Monday and Tuesday as a series of power outages engulfed the country amidst soaring temperatures.  

Customers of the country’s sole energy provider took to social media to vent their frustration, posting screenshots showing ongoing phone calls to the company lasting as long as 45 minutes and sharing their experiences of heatwave Cerberus.  

Tanya Zammit said she had been trying to reach Enemalta by phone for over an hour and a half on Monday night while Daniel Muscat speculated that it would be impossible to get through, estimating that thousands were likely calling the company.

“As per usual, horrendous summer heatwave and the power has been out since 7.30pm," wrote Laura Bonnici on the company’s Facebook page on Monday night, adding the company was not answering the phone.   

“So, what now, chaps? Eat the rapidly melting contents of my freezer and wait for Malta's one and only power company to do its one and only job?” she said. 

Residents of Mosta and Naxxar started complaining of the outage from the start of the week, with Maria Aquilina writing she was “melting” and had tried calling the company without success. 

Social media users across the country blasted the company for long delays in fixing the outages, with numerous residents complaining they had been left without electricity for hours on end, some for as long as 12 hours.  

Parents of young children expressed particular concern, describing how the high temperatures were causing significant discomfort to youngsters in the absence of air conditioning.  

“This is really ridiculous, my one-year-old is boiling,” said Fay Gatt Camenzuli. 

One social media user highlighted the difficulties faced by those relying on electricity for specialist medical devices.  

“Still no idea when we will have light, so no fans, no AC [air-conditioning] and for some of us no CPAP [Continuous Positive Airway Pressure] machine which we need,” said Moira Palmier.  

CPAP machines use air pressure to keep a patient’s airways open and are used to treat sleep-related breathing disorders. 

One user took the opportunity to remind people to take care of birds and other animals, urging readers to leave water in containers on roofs or in yards and gardens.  

“It only takes a few minutes of kindness to help the innocent animals who are suffering as a result of human actions,” said Janice Scerri.  

Meanwhile, some tried to lighten the situation, with Melissa Pace writing it reminded her of the eighties and Dunstan Crockford quipping, “and we are expected to have electric cars!” 

In a statement on Tuesday morning, Enemalta attributed the outages in Naxxar and Mosta to “five unrelated underground cable faults,” and said that power would be restored by the afternoon. 

Around 4.30pm that day, however, Żebbuġ also suffered a power cut.  

Road infrastructure was also affected, with residents reporting traffic lights not being operational due to the outages.  

The outages continued through into Tuesday evening, with social media users complaining of power cuts and low voltage in Żurrieq, Sliema and Naxxar.  

At around 11.20pm, Enemalta issued a statement on its Facebook page saying that it had carried out more repairs but that issues were still ongoing.  

“Electricity supply in some areas affected by network difficulties earlier tonight has now been restored,” the company wrote.  

“Our engineers and technicians are carrying out repairs in other areas to reconnect affected customers as soon as possible.” 

And in another statement on Wednesday at around 7am, the company said repairs continued throughout the night with supply being restored to most customers.

However, several repairs were still in progress and will continue during the day with customers in three remaining localised areas in Żurrieq, Naxxar and Żebbuġ, where extensive repairs are required, still to be reconnected.

In an SMS later, it also said that supply to parts of Għargħur had been interrupted.

In a statement issued to the media during the day, the company said more than 50 technicians, engineers and customer care agents responded to nine major network disruptions in localised areas of several localities between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Most disruptions were caused by underground cable faults, which require fault location works using specialised equipment, road trenching to uncover damaged cables and the laying and jointing of new cables, it said.

In most disruptions, customers were reconnected to the network through other connections in the same area.

In some cases, multiple faults in the same area prohibited the restoration of supply through alternative connections until repairs to damaged underground cables were completed

Giving an example, Enemalta said five cable faults in different parts of Żurrieq were registered within a few hours.

Works to repair these faults are still in progress, and the last remaining localised areas impacted will be reconnected to the network as soon as possible, it added.

It said one small area in Żebbuġ also requires extensive repairs to grid infrastructure.

In this case, it was possible to restore supply to the area through a backup power system.

Power returns in Żebbuġ nearly 24 hours later, fresh outages elsewhere

By 4pm on Wednesday, power was returned in parts of Żebbuġ that had reported a power cut nearly 24 hours earlier.

However, readers reported fresh outages in Naxxar, Ibraġ, Gżira and Żejtun.

Enemalta's live outage map showed a power cut caused by a "fault" in parts of Naxxar, Għargħur and Iklin. 

San Ġwann readers meanwhile said they have been without power since 6pm on Tuesday.

Enemalta said it will continue to carry out the required works to re-establish network flexibility and resilience in the affected areas throughout  Wednesday. Short supply interruptions may be required to finalise these works and safely shift supply connections back to the repaired infrastructure.

Enemalta said it kept its clients informed of developments by SMS. One can apply to receive such SMSs by sending a text message with the ID number of the account holder to 7905 2492. 

Questions were sent to the company on Tuesday morning.