PN blames government incompetence for power outages, promises investment in grid

PN spokespersons Ryan Callus and Joe Giglio say the country needs serious investment to improve its power grid and ensure this basic necessity is guaranteed

By: maltatoday.com

Jul 17 2024
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PN blames government incompet

A Nationalist government will seriously invest in the electricity distribution system and ensure this basic necessity is guaranteed, spokespersons Ryan Callus and Joe Giglio said on Wednesday.

They were reacting to the review carried out by the National Audit Office that attributed the prolonged power cuts of July 2023 to a lack of investment by Enemalta.

Callus, spokesperson for energy, and Giglio, spokesperson for infrastructure, said the lack of investment in the distribution network is causing disruption and suffering as a result of continued power outages.

The spokespersons were speaking a day after Gozo experienced an hours-long blackout as a result of high voltage cables that caught fire. Other localities in Malta such as Mosta, San Ġwann and Qormi also experienced power outages.

“A Nationalist government will immediately invest in upgrading the distribution network to ensure this problem becomes one of the past,” they said.

The NAO analysed data from the past 10 years and found that the amount of money invested in the high voltage network decreased over the years despite higher demand and economic growth. It acknowledged that last year’s abnormal heatwave was the trigger for several faults on the network but added the lack of investment over the years was a contributing factor.

Callus and Giglio said the electricity crisis was the result of government’s incompetence and blamed Energy Minister Miriam Dalli for not showing direction.

“It is necessary that the government takes its responsibility seriously to invest in this country’s infrastructure to ensure it can cope with the increase in population… the Labour government is so caught up in internal squabbles that it has failed to realise the need for better infrastructure,” the PN spokespersons said.

They also criticised the lack of public information provided by Enemalta in real time whenever electricity outages occur. While Gozo was without electricity on Tuesday, the online map provided by Enemalta to indicate power outages had no indication that electricity was disrupted in Gozo.