The Association of Catering Establishments (ACE) has expressed serious concern in view of the current frequent and at times lengthy power outages the country is experiencing over the past few days.

As the Maltese islands grapple with the first proper heatwave for the summer, citizens have been left in a pool of their own sweat as power outages persist.

“ACE is very concerned about the negative financial impact such power shortages are having on the catering industry. A negative financial impact caused by the loss of raw materials as well as abrupt loss of sales during peak season,” the ACE said in a statement.

“Many establishments in various localities have reported no power supply for whole day long stretches, which seriously cripples their daily sales and storage of refrigerated supplies.”

“The fact ACE members are having to close for business and refuse bookings in peak July is unacceptable.”

It continued to say that this is a negative impact which adds to the multitude of challenges the industry is already facing which includes “human resources issues and a discriminatory work regulation order, the challenges and costs incurred experienced by the introduction of the BCRS scheme, and to add insult to injury various road works all over Malta and Gozo during summer disrupting their day-to-day business”.

“Whilst ACE expresses solidarity towards its members, it calls on the government and Enemalta for prompt action and stresses on the need for a clear energy strategy to avoid similar situations in the months and years to come.”

This comes as Enemalta’s CEO has said that they cannot guarantee the power cuts will stop for as long as the heatwave persists, with weather forecasts predicting it will still be in full swing for at least another week.

Have you been impacted by the ongoing power cuts?