Last Updated on Thursday, 10 October, 2019 at 11:49 am by Christian Keszthelyi
Malta’s electricity supply was on a gradual rise from 2014 to 2018, chiefly comprising of power plant-generated and imported electricity, according to recent statistics published by the National Statistics Office (NSO). Although renewable energy sources have also appeared in the energy mix recently, their annual contribution still stays below 8% of the total.
In 2018, the electricity supply in Malta was generated by power plants (67.7%), supplied from net imports (24.5%) and harvested from renewable sources (7.8%), the most recent NSO figures reveal.
While electricity produced by power plants grew by a year-on-year 19.2% in 2018, imported electricity dropped by 29.6% when compared to the previous year.
Albeit performing a gradual growth, renewable energy sources only grew by a year-on-year 15.4%, lagging behind in growth and final amount of electricity generated (198.6 GWh) , when compared to power plants (1,763.5 GWh) in 2018. Most of the renewable energy (95.5%) was produced from photovoltaic panels.
The highest amount of electricity supplied during 2018 happened in August, claiming a share of 10.5% of the total, and July, with a share of 10.2%.
Malta’s electricity production comprised of output of power stations in Marsa and Delimara in 2014, which was complemented by imported electricity through the Malta-Sicily Interconnector in 2015 and 2016.
Starting from 2017, electricity was produced by Enemalta power station (Delimara), D3 Power Generation, D4 Electrogas Malta, as well as was imported from the Malta-Sicily Interconnector, the NSO says in a note. The same year, Malta started exporting electricity through the Malta-Sicily Interconnector, however, the levels have stayed relatively low; at 35,695 MWh in 2017 and 10,549MWh in 2018.
Renewable energy produced from photovoltaic panels (PV), micro wind turbines and Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plant, the NSO notes.
