A power cable that goes through parts of Birkirkara and Sta Venera suffered a third fault in two days, Enemalta has confirmed, as some residents spent a second night without power until generators were rigged up. 

"Fault location works are currently underway to locate a third fault which developed on an 11kV cable in parts of Birkirkara and St Venera," the power company said in a Facebook statement. 

"Fault location works to be followed by excavation works are currently underway so that our technical team may access the affected part of the cable and carry out the neccessary repair works. Meanwhile, where technically feasible a generator is being connected to substations to, where possible, provide affected customers with electricity supply," it added.

At about 3am it said that the power supply had been restored to all affected customer substations through the generators while repair work continued. Once these are finalised, customers will be disconnected from the generators and re-connected to the grid.

The power outages have affected parts of the old church area of Birkirkara and parts of Sta Venera. One Sta Venera resident said she had been without power for between 12 and 13 hours and food had gone to waste, 

The first fault developed on Monday evening. Supply was restored quickly when supply was switched to an alternative source. But a second fault then developed.   

The third fault developed on Tuesday evening affecting the same areas. 

Enemalta apologised for the inconvenience caused.