Last updated Monday 9.47 pm

Power outages persisted on Sunday night and Monday as Malta endured another sweltering day, despite Enemalta assuring the public on Sunday that electricity had been restored to those affected by cable outages. 

Times of Malta readers in Mosta, Naxxar, Sliema, Zejtun, Birzebbuga, Qormi, Fgura, Ghaxaq, Qrendi, Zurrieq and Rabat reported new power outages on Monday evening.  

Parts of Dingli, Rabat, Sliema, San Ġwann, Attard, St Paul’s Bay, Żejtun and Gżira reported power outages late on Sunday night and early on Monday morning. 

This was the seventh consecutive night where power outages were reported across various localities. 

One person in Dingli said that the power went out at around 11 pm on Sunday and had not yet been restored in the early hours of Monday morning. 

“I am writing as desperation and despair starts setting in my fourth sleepless night under the sweltering Maltese heat,” he said. 

“This is the fourth night sitting on a bench outside with a mere heated breeze and mosquitoes surrounding me and I'm trying to pass the time waiting for the electricity to be restored.”

Readers in San Ġwann and Attard said that they were left without electricity from around 9 pm on Sunday, with some elderly residents unable to endure the heat and being forced to spend the night with relatives to get a good night’s sleep. 

One frustrated reader in Mosta said they would have to endure a fourth sleepless night after the power went out in their home at around 11 pm.

The man added that he was unable to contact Enenmalta through their customer care line, despite being kept on hold for over an hour. 

“Imagine returning home after a couple of hours out only to find that once again we shall be facing another sleepless, sweaty night without power,” he said. 

“I have spent more than an hour trying to get through to the Enemalta customer care number. After one hour and sixteen minutes, I had to give up.”

In Żejtun, one reader said they only had electricity for a few hours on Sunday night, before experiencing an ongoing power cut at around 4 am on Monday morning. 

Five new faults developed - Enemalta

In a statement on Monday, Enemalta said that it has so far repaired 45 out of 64 high voltage cable faults and workers were dispatched to address another five faults that developed over Sunday night, in order to restore electricity supply to the affected areas. 

In most cases, they said that power was restored through alternative cable connections within three hours. 

In parts of Dingli, the electricity supply could not be restored before the required repairs were completed, Enemalta added, while in Żejtun power was restored through a standby power generating system and a localised area within this locality will be reconnected to the grid as soon as ongoing repairs are completed. 

Police told Times of Malta that on Sunday night a fire was reported at an Enemalta substation in Rabat, which saw families evacuated from their homes as a precaution. 

Enemalta said that this occurred due to a cable termination fault in the substation and began to let out smoke.

“The cable’s protection systems immediately isolated the faulty section of the cable, to avoid further damage to the substation,” they said.

“As soon as the fault was identified, substations connected to the same circuit which could be safely re-energised, were switched on again. Meanwhile, repairs of the faulty termination were launched immediately, and electricity supply to the remaining areas was restored during the same night.”

The Malta Meteorological Office reported another blistering day, with the temperature  high of 42.7°C.