This is not going to be a one-off situation, Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said on Monday, when she again addressed the crisis of power cuts that has been hitting the country for the past days.
On Sunday Enemalta said it had restored electricity supply to all customers affected by the high voltage cable faults registered earlier, but it took only a few hours for several other faults to develop on the distribution network as the country continues to battled with a heat wave. Enemalta has blamed the high temperatures for the faults that have been occurring for the past seven days.
Speaking to journalists, Dalli said that apart from working round the clock to restore energy to affected areas, the government will continue to invest in the electricity distribution system so that it can cater for future occurrences better.
Asked whether the country is to expect more power cuts, Enemalta CEO Joseph Cardona said that during the weekend the system “seems to have recovered”, adding that until Monday morning everything was okay and “we remain hopeful that the situation remains like that”.
Cardona said that on Monday the country reached a new record peak usage of 649 mega watts.
In giving a breakdown of the high tension voltage faults that have happened until now, Cardona said that 59 took place in Malta, whilst another 9 were identified in Gozo.
A total of 37 cable faults in Malta while all 9 in Gozo have all been fixed at the time the press conference was being given, 5pm Monday.
He said that the virtual map that is available on the Enemalta website shows only areas which have been highly affected by the power cuts.
Enemalta Chairman Ryan Fava thanked Enemalta workers who have been working diligently around the clock to address the power cuts.
He also advised the general public to use electricity more wisely and not to switch on appliances unnecessarily.
Moreover, in giving details on how a distribution centre works another Enemalta spokesperson explained that if overload was the problem that is causing the power cuts, then the circuit breaker present in every distribution centre would switch off immediately, before the electricity reaches the cables, hence resulting in no faults.
He said that the company has a plan to increase the presence of distribution centres around Malta over the next six years. From the current 1,600, there are plans to build another 250-300. He said that this will further enhance the electricity network, which in turn will mitigate problems in the case of faults.