More Brief Powercuts Could Hit Malta As Enemalta Confirms Ship’s Anchor Damaged Interconnector
Cover photo: Polar King, inset, and Delimara Power Station
A ruptured cable that was damaged when a ship’s anchor was dragged over it has been confirmed as the reason behind all the recent power cuts hitting Malta.
In a study that cost Enemalta €1 million, the survey vessel Polar King was able to identify the location of the damage on the interconnector cable that runs between Sicily and Malta, with the vessel’s findings confirming “Enemalta’s suspicions to date”.
This confirmation means Enemalta can begin the process of getting the interconnector up and running – though the company admits that there may be more power cuts until then.
“The footage of the survey conducted provides reasonable evidence that the cable was ruptured by an anchor, with evidence showing how the anchor was dragged, eventually dislodging the cable from the trench on the seabed, and subsequently breaking it,” Enemalta said.
Now, the energy company is focused on analyzing the footage “to establish what actions need to be taken to initiate the repair process”.
Until then, Enemalta has switched on all available turbines on the island at a cost of €150,000 a day to cover the island’s energy needs.
However, this may not be enough, as can be seen from the spate of short, minutes-long power cuts experienced in some localities over the last few days.
This is partly due to steam turbines on the island suddenly tripping following unexpected spikes in power requirements.
However, an Enemalta spokesperson has said that the company has “sufficient generation capacity to cover seasonal peak loads”, though they noted that there may still be “automatic load shedding in order to maintain system frequency”, that is, sudden blackouts.
If the power outages are not widespread, however, Enemalta should be able to restore energy within minutes, the spokesperson pointed out.
What do you think of Malta’s sudden energy problems?
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