Interconnector blamed as Malta suffers two power cuts

The interconnector is being blamed for two power cuts that took place over the past few hours – one during the night and a second yesterday morning – but the cause of the blackouts is still being investigated, Enemalta said.

Company CEO Frederick Azzopardi told journalists yesterday that the power outage was likely caused by water flooding at the power distribution terminal in Ragusa, Sicily. Last month a nationwide power cut was caused by lightning strikes on the Sicilian grid.

Mr Azzopardi said the first alarm was registered at the Ragusa terminal at 10.15pm on Monday. A more serious alarm went off at 1.39am and around one minute later a main circuit breaker at the Ragusa plant shut off. At the time Malta was drawing 132 megawatts from the interconnector and 38 megawatts from the Delimara 1 plant.

In Malta the automatic load shedding system kicked in but half of Delimara 1 shut down. The first emergency gas turbine was switched on shortly before 3am and power was restored to some areas within 10 minutes. The interconnector was synchronised by 4.30am and power was fully restored to all areas by 5.35am.

The second power cut hit at 8.30am yesterday morning. Mr Azzopardi said Enemalta was in continuous contact with engineers in Sicily to assist and determine the cause. In the meantime, the interconnector has been switched on again but the load is being kept to a minimum.

“The indications are that this was caused by the heavy rains in Sicily. It is understood that part of the Ragusa plant was flooded, causing the disturbance,” Mr Azzopardi said, adding that there did not seem to be any actual damage.

Minister Konrad Mizzi said the incident showed how important an energy mix was. “We are not criticising the interconnector – that is an important part of the energy mix – but we cannot rely on this method alone. Malta will be able to generate its base load locally by the summer,” he said.

“The Siemens plant is being tested and BWSC will start running on gas in the coming weeks.”

Mr Azzopardi said Enemalta could not rely on the new power plant as yet, adding that, should there be more serious problems with the interconnector, the company would have to consider reopening part of the Marsa power station. “This is something we do not wish to do,” he said.

He confirmed that, until D4 (the new plant) is commissioned, Malta’s energy supply is still vulnerable to weather conditions in Sicily.

On 16 January, Malta had experienced a similar blackout.