Friday’s powerful storm saw the Electrogas power plant effectively grind to a halt as the tanker supplying it with LNG had to be pulled away from its jetty for safety reasons.
The floating storage unit is equipped with a storm mooring system that allows it to be winched a short distance away from the jetty and hunkered down when the sea gets too rough for it to safely operate.
When the storm mooring system is in use, the tanker is disconnected from the jetty and no longer able to supply LNG to the Electrogas plant.
The tanker is understood to have been disconnected from the jetty in anticipation of Storm Helios battering the island.
A spokesperson for Electrogas said the floating storage unit was put into its storm mooring position on Friday at 2.30am.
The spokesperson said the unit was reconnected to the terminal at 2pm on Saturday, with full gas availability expected on Sunday.
The privately owned power station provides a sizeable chunk of energy to the national grid, which has led the Nationalist opposition to quip that Malta has been lumped with a power station that only works “in good weather”.
Malta’s second-largest plant, known as BWSC, is also partially reliant on supply from Electrogas.
The island was hit by widespread power cuts during the storm, when the interconnector, which was under an increased daytime load due to the Electrogas outage, “tripped” on Friday.
At the time of the power cuts, electricity demand was at 400MW, while total available supply stood at 500MW, with Enemalta able to draw on supply from the interconnector as well as the BWSC and Delimara 2 plants, as well as renewable sources- Energy Ministry spokeswoman
Data on an energy market website suggested that the interconnector was working at full capacity on Saturday.
A spokeswoman for the energy ministry pushed back at claims that the interconnector had tripped due to being overloaded as a result of the Electrogas outage.
At the time of the power cuts, electricity demand was at 400MW, while total available supply stood at 500MW, the spokeswoman said, with Enemalta able to draw on supply from the interconnector as well as the BWSC and Delimara 2 plants, as well as renewable sources.
'At no point was Malta fully reliant on the interconnector'
The power cut did not affect all Enemalta customers, as supply from local generation sources was also being used, the spokeswoman said.
“At no point was Malta fully reliant on the interconnector, nor was the interconnector overloaded.
“Such allegations are not only unfounded but also partisan in nature and only meant to create instability.
“In fact, the interconnector is designed to take overloads for up to one hour. This confirms that, had it been overloaded as claimed by partisan quarters, it would still not have tripped,” the spokeswoman said. On the floating storage unit, the spokeswoman said there is a standard procedure followed in cases of bad weather.
“As strong winds and extreme weather conditions battered the island, the FSU had to be moved to its storm-mooring position during the storm,” the spokeswoman said.
The government has in the past faced criticism for opting for an offshore LNG storage unit, rather than an onshore solution.
'Onshore solution ruled out for environmental reasons'
Former energy minister Konrad Mizzi told a parliamentary hearing on Electrogas that the onshore solution was ruled out for environmental reasons.
According to Enemalta minutes detailed in a separate parliament hearing, technical experts had deemed the onshore solution to be a better option.
Due to the lack of a dedicated onshore storage system, LNG supply to the Electrogas plant is disrupted when the tanker needs to be winched away from the terminal and hunkered down to weather the storm.
The tanker’s local agent, Mario Pullicino, features in a corruption probe linked to Mizzi and ex-OPM chief of staff Keith Schembri.
Companies owned by Pullicino were found to have carried out potentially suspicious transactions with 17 Black and another company owned by former Electrogas director Yorgen Fenech.
17 Black was in turn identified as one of the main sources of income for once-secret Panama companies set up by Mizzi and Schembri.