'Trip' during maintenance works at Delimara power station was cause of ower outage

Electricity supply has been fully restored to all Enemalta customers who experienced an interruption, the service provider announced.

The company said that the outage occurred at 6:20pm at the Delimara power station during maintenance works on the interconnector, causing a supply disruption from one of the generating units.

"Enemalta’s engineers and technicians immediately took all necessary measures to gradually restore supply to those areas affected. This was done without putting at risk the national electricity infrastructure. Within an hour, supply was gradually restored to all affected customers."

Many households in Malta once again experienced power cuts, with those affected reaching the thousands. 

Among the localities affected by the power cuts were Xgħajra, Dingli, Attard, Żebbuġ, Paola, Marsaxlokk, Marsaskala, Iklin, Luqa, Marsa, Żejtun and Mosta.

Last year, Maltese households and businesses were constantly reporting power cuts, as Enemalta had claimed that the power cuts were largely caused by cable faults, and had nothing to do with overloads. 

Last February, Enemalta's executive chairman Ryan Fava said that Enemalta would not be able to guarantee the country a “security of energy supply” during peak summer months, without a new 60MW “temporary” diesel-powered “emergency plant” in Delimara.