A change of political masters brings yet more confusion to the beleaguered state run energy company: as Malta’s energy future hangs in the balance GERALD FENECH delves into the chaotic situation at the Enemalta Corporation
It was an almost bizarre sense of deja’ vu. Not only did the country experience two major power failures in just 10 days – making for a total of four in the space of 12 months – but newly anointed Energy Minister Tonio Fenech last Saturday even asked for a guarantee that the previous day’s blackout would not happen again.
And yet, Fenech could very easily have checked outgoing Enemalta Chairman Alex Tranter’s statement last June (made in the wake of another power cut, this time lasting nine hours) that ‘no energy provider in the world can guarantee that power outages will not occur’.
Which raises the question: who, if anyone, is accountable for what happens at Enemalta?
Following a recent surprise cabinet reshuffle, which transferred Enemalta from the portfolio of bulldozer Transport and Communications Minister Austin Gatt to that of Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi seemed to signal his discontent with at the way things were previously handled at the state-owned energy provider.
But with a chairman now on his way out to take up a position with an Italian-based energy company, and the responsible Minister clearly ‘in the dark’ (if you’ll excuse the pun) about the recent goings-on at the Corporation, it seems to be business as usual despite the cosmetic changes.
Enemalta has in fact continued to cover itself in smoke and smog in the past weeks, with two major power cuts in 10 days, and an ongoing investigation into the BWSC plant extension contract which hasn’t quite stopped the present administration from spending thousands in taxpayer money to convince us it was a good deal.
Minister Fenech has meanwhile attempted to bring some sort of decision making to the company, but even he appears completely out of synch with public opinion on the situation.
As a local newspaper commented editorially (surprisingly, for once), it was a gross insult to the intelligence of the people to ask for yet another report on the energy situation at Enemalta... for all the world as if nobody knows what the country has been through in the past months.
The ghost of reports past And yet, Enemalta’s own Energy Generation Plan, published in 2006, clearly shows that massive investment is needed to avoid regular power cuts after 2010... and with more developments coming on stream, the situation is going to get much worse before it gets better.
All this has to be seen in the context of continually rising oil prices, which this week have hovered around the USD $86 a barrel mark with our energy tariffs already pegged at almost unsustainable levels for business and consumers alike.
The future looks increasingly bleak as the short term prognosis is that power cuts will start becoming even more frequent as the ageing equipment at Marsa – and up to a certain extent also Delimara – begins to pack in.
As this newspaper had already argued in July 2009, just after the infamous blackout which lasted almost a whole day, the situation at Enemalta is serious and remains a concern especially in the light of its precarious financial situation. But there is no indication that the government has learnt anything in the months since July 2009 and March 2010, with the BWSC debacle and the tariffs issue continually in the headlines.
Incredibly the reaction to last Friday’s power cut was yet another explanation of a technical nature which no one really understands and a minute by minute account from Enemalta’s PR office informing us which localities had power as if we are involved in a bizarre race against time with everyone trying to beat their neighbours in getting the light back on.
The much vaunted Enemalta report, prepared by an internal inquiry into the Friday power cut and which was supposedly completed as at end of the working day on Monday, was rather disappointing to say the least – coming up with four major recommendations as follows:
An increase of the reserve capacity from 5MW to 10MW; the possibility of introducing independent load shedding; the refusal of any industrial action which limits the communication between power stations; and that engineers who were responsible for the incident should be warned accordingly.
Quite a meagre list of directives, which to be frank are absolutely nothing new. Yet again the political game was played out as the industrial directives put in place by the General Workers Union were said to have contributed to a lack of communication between the two power stations, with the result that engineers at Marsa began switching off a number of feeders to avoid voltage fluctuations.
Yet again another technical explanation which clearly shows that the message does not seem to be getting across.
And with government (and the Prime Minister in particular) actively pushing their Vision 2015 – which 89% of the nation doesen’t know exists – the most basic component of the Smart Island strategy, energy, appears to be teetering on the brink of collapse.
The die appears to be cast and we seem to be hurtling further to the edge of the precipice and no one seems to be noticing that the country is moving towards an economic and financial disaster.
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