Heatwave causes record energy demand
Load peaked at 460MW
The heatwaves that have borne down on the Maltese Islands over the past weeks and days have caused the national demand for electricity to reach an all-time high. A spokesperson for Enemalta plc has told The Malta Independent that over the last few days, the electricity load peaked at a staggering 460 megawatts.
Peak electricity grid load is the greatest quantity of energy distributed through the national electricity network, to Enemalta’s customers, at any one time. Last week’s new all-time high is 13 megawatts higher than the peak reached two weeks ago, as more customers are turning to electricity to keep homes, businesses and other buildings cool for summer.
Previously, the all-time peak grid load stood at 438 megawatts, registered two years ago, in July 2015.
“The developments of the last two weeks also mark the first time that a new peak grid load was reached without resorting to electricity generated by the old HFOfired power plants at the Marsa and the Delimara power stations,” Enemalta told this newspaper.
In April 2017, Malta decommissioned its last HFO-fired boilers at Delimara to shift to a new electricity generation mix based on natural gas-fired plants, the Malta-Italy Interconnector and grid-connected renewable energy sources. These three primary sources are dispatched together to achieve an optimal energy mix that ensures increased reliability of supply, lower emissions and reasonable, stable tariffs to customers. The 1994 and 1999 diesel plants at the Delimara Power Station provide additional standby capacity for increased security of supply during emergencies.
The spokesperson explained that the electricity consumption throughout the Maltese Islands is gradually increasing every year as more customers opt for electrical energy as a cleaner, more affordable choice for their residential, commercial and industrial requirements. Demand for electricity is also dependent on population growth and increased economic activity. Tourism and industrial zones are among the areas with the highest growth in electricity consumption in recent years.
During periods of peak consumption, Enemalta takes several measures to ensure that the country’s electricity generation and distribution systems continue to meet customers’ electricity demand. “The Company’s network and electricity generation engineers are constantly monitoring the system to continually optimise their performance as temperatures increase.”
Enemalta investing more money to reinforce national electricity distribution
Enemalta is engaged in an ongoing investment to reinforce the national electricity distribution system, to increase network redundancy and to meet rising demands in different parts of the country. Since 2014, the company has invested over €100 million in network reinforcement projects in Malta and Gozo. Besides commissioning six new electricity distribution centres to ease the load from the pre-existing 19 centres, Enemalta has also extended the network by over 100 kilometres of new high voltage underground cables. Some existing distribution centres are also being upgraded and extended with bigger transformers to meet rising demand. Over 200 substations across the country have been added or upgraded with new equipment. This investment is helping Enemalta reduce the risk of difficulties leading to power cuts, whilst providing the necessary flexibility to assist customers affected by such disruptions as quickly as possible.
As a result of this investment, average service interruptions to our customers have already been reduced by over 60%. In the meantime, power cuts were reported in a number of localities over the past few days, with some lasting up to five hours.