Investment in energy distribution must evolve with country’s development – Enemalta chief

Investment in energy distribution must keep evolving to meet with the country’s development, executive chairperson of Enemalta, Ryan Fava, said in an interview with this media house.

In the past months Enemalta has been upgrading its network following a spate of power cuts that hit the country in summer last year, but which have seen a return this summer too as temperatures rose.

The work carried out in the past months was tantamount to the work that is normally carried out over a span of years, he said. Some 82 kilometres of cables have been laid in last year’s worst affected areas, i.e., Mosta, Għargħur, Naxxar, Żurrieq, Cottonera, Rabat, and Gozo.

Despite this, he said, not all issues have been resolved, which is why Enemalta is now entering a second phase of works to continue holistically improving the infrastructure.

“I reiterate, this is not a one-time investment,” Fava said. “This is an investment that must keep evolving with the country’s development.”

Denying that deficiencies in the electrical grid are due to planning failures, Fava said Enemalta is addressing problems related to the distribution of energy to households and referenced the constant high temperatures as the main cause behind random power outages experienced across the Maltese islands.

In mid-July 2024, the National Audit Office (NAO) concluded that Enemalta’s shortcomings in both planning and investment, “to varying degrees,” played a role to the prolonged power outages experienced in the summer of 2023. These findings were published in the NAO’s “High-Level Review on Enemalta’s Planning and Investment in the Local Distribution Network.” This point was also highlighted by the Nationalist Party’s Shadow Minister for Energy, Ryan Callus, in an interview published with this newsroom in early June.

When asked whether Enemalta failed in terms of planning ahead to ensure that energy supply could be guaranteed amidst the country’s rapid population growth and overdevelopment, Fava responded that “I wouldn’t say it was a failure. I wouldn’t say we didn’t plan enough”.

Fava defended Malta’s sole electricity distribution system operator, Enemalta, on certain decisions taken in the previous decade.

“Previous management may have felt that more investment in low-voltage cables was necessary, rather than to medium-voltage cables. But one must see how the grid has improved holistically – medium and low,” Fava said.

“I think if we look at our tables of cost estimates, one can see that if investments were not made in medium-voltage, they were made in low-voltage,” he said.

NAO’s recently published high-level review cites “faults in the national high voltage (HV) distribution network” as the primary cause to the protracted power cuts of the summer of 2023.

When challenged that the rapid increase in population was expected, due to the country’s economic model, Fava denied that Enemalta failed to plan ahead and for certain works, such as the introduction of more distribution centres, to be done sooner.

He noted that Enemalta has always seen that certain investments were made to improve the infrastructure with the resources it had.

Fava also said that before Enemalta began working more closely with Infrastructure Malta, the energy services provider “used to struggle” to find a contractor to work on a trench for works. Additionally, Fava mentioned how some projects for distribution centres have been pending for four years due to appeals and other steps, as permits are still waiting to be granted.

Distribution centres are required to distribute energy to nearby localities’ substations and were referenced to be important to reinforce the infrastructure alongside substations, low-voltage feeders, and cables. There are currently 27 distribution centres across Malta and Gozo, with several more pending for Naxxar, Siġġiewi, Msida (upgrade), and Rabat (location still being decided); Fava stated that these distribution centres must be in place by 2026.

The executive chairperson added that low-voltage feeders are being installed in order to address an issue where household lights begin to flicker. He said that this fault is caused by electricity not being distributed well to a particular zone, causing the affected places to receive sub-standard levels of voltage. Using an analogy, Fava described this issue being similar to a water pipe struggling to supply a full road with water, resulting in the household at the end of this road to receive droplets; he said that adding low-voltage feeders, in this analogy, works similarly to expanding the water pipe to encourage better flow, so it could cater to the building at the end of the road as well and resolve this issue.

He also spoke positively about Enemalta’s working plans from November 2023 onwards to work in conjunction with Infrastructure Malta and Transport Malta on many projects.

When asked as to why Enemalta’s budget for 2023 was less than it was in 2014, despite infrastructure needing to cater for a larger and more power-hungry population, Fava cited delayed projects and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Enemalta’s chairman said that projects like the Naxxar distribution centre are only incorporated into an annual budget once permits are given. Projects in this status are shifted for the following year, he said, while describing how Enemalta faced issues similar to this. He also made reference to previous management’s decision to invest in low-voltage feeders, as well as two of the past ten years being in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fava stated that last year’s severe power outages raised alarm bells at Enemalta, forcing its planned investments to be “aggressively” accelerated. He stated that the recent investments made to cables alone are “not enough” and that distribution centres, substations, and low-voltage feeders are also important. He said that all these elements contribute to improving the grid.

He cited Enemalta’s €90 million plan and its target of adding 40 substations, the “aggressive” €55 million invested this year alongside the addition of 68 new substations, and Enemalta exceeding its target of 90 new low-voltage cables with 113 as evidence of its recent investments made.

Fava said he can “never” give a guarantee that the people will not face any power cuts in future summers, though commented that “work that was done in the infrastructure in places that faced issues last year gave us peace of mind that this year, we are in a much better situation.”

Referencing the series of unplanned power outages affecting families and businesses across the Maltese islands, Fava expressed sympathy to the affected areas for the prolonged power cuts before commending his “dedicated” staff.

“We take pride in providing electricity,” he said.

Fava spoke about the recent incident that saw a substation in Gżira go ablaze to proudly commend Enemalta’s workers. He said that on this day, works commenced at around 20:00 and by 02:30, around six and a half hours later, they had a fully energised substation.

“Load is directly proportional to temperature”

Fava stood firm that Enemalta could have never planned for the peak demands experienced both this summer and last summer, and that the levels of temperature and peak energy demands were significantly greater than what was initially forecasted. He remarked that one could not have known that these levels would be recorded so early.

“We expected a 3.5% increase in load [for this summer], a 14% increase in load was not foreseen,” Fava said.

Fava stated that “there is a direct correlation between temperature and load” and that power outages were experienced due to the record-breaking temperatures of last summer, as everyone “rightly so” attempted to feel comfortable inside their own homes via their appliances. He told this newsroom that last year, the peak load demand recorded by Enemalta for the country was 670 megawatts (MW) – a total that was initially forecasted to first be reached in 2028.

The Enemalta chief assured that “today, we have damages that are well under control.” He said that during one of its worst days last summer, Enemalta detected some 80 cable faults; in contrast, one particular evening earlier this week detected just three faults. Fava noted that the situation now “is totally different to last year” and that this has been noted in the peak loads observed; while 2023 observed a peak load of 670MW, the peak load observed this summer so far was of circa 600MW.

Fava pinned the 82km of cables laid since the end of 2023 as another factor as to why power cuts this summer have not been as severe as last year. Referencing Żurrieq as an example, he said that last year, some residents went up to 40 hours straight without electricity, but this summer, Enemalta have only had to deal with a single 33kV medium-voltage cable that tripped; Fava said this issue was resolved after five minutes.

“This year, thank God, we can say that we didn’t see this impact,” he said.

While addressing the cause of the power cuts experienced so far this summer, Fava said that even though temperatures have not yet reached the scorching highs of 2023, the country still observed a heat wave with temperatures reaching as high as 38°C. In this regard, he said that Enemalta has observed “constant high temperatures.”

“Obviously, clients are not going to limit themselves from switching on appliances, and rightly so,” he said, “If people are feeling hot, they are going to see that they are comfortable in their own homes.”

Fava told this newsroom that Malta is “not unique” in this regard, and that neighbouring countries have been dealing with their own fair shares of power outages.

Despite climate change fears always looming, Fava dismissed the idea that people should be wary for aggravated spates of blackouts to be experienced in five-to-ten years’ time, since by then, several pending distribution centres (which will reinforce the distribution network) should be up and running.

Fava said that the Naxxar distribution centre is a very important project and hopes for its permits to be finalised soon so that Enemalta can commence its necessary works as soon as possible.

Shore-to-ship project functions on principle of availability

Ryan Fava told this newsroom that the shore-to-ship project functions off the principle of availability. In no part of this interview did the Enemalta chief pin this project or electric vehicles as factors contributing to recent power cuts, unlike Prime Minister Robert Abela did in late July, to the criticism of the Nationalist Party.

“We certainly won’t give a ship [energy] and take away or switch off generation from Maltese clients,” Fava said. “The first preference are residents, and obviously, if there is available load, we will give [to ships], but if there isn’t availability, we won’t.”

Fava said that at the moment, Enemalta is dealing with one vessel that is taking up circa 10MW – the equivalent of around eight to ten substations, he said. Fava also stated that there is enough energy available for the maximum five cruise liners to benefit from the shore-to-ship project.

While discussing the project, Fava said that through adequate planning, Enemalta communicates with Transport Malta to know in advance when a cruise liner is arriving into the Maltese islands.

“With adequate planning, we must see what generation we can provide and what is available,” he said.

Fava said that these ships are also clients to Enemalta through this project and that with the present situation being the way it is, he sees no need for the shore-to-ship project not to be utilised.

Calling it a “successful project,” the Enemalta chief spoke positively about how this initiative benefits nearby people through the resultant lack of pollution.

He continued that today, there is available energy for ships to plug in because the shore-to-ship project has a dedicated line from the distribution centre located in Marsa North; this distribution centre is being fed directly by a main cable from the Delimara power station.

Looking into the future, Fava said that all vessels entering certain ports will be imposed to plug in and have a shore-to-ship connection – this is due to an imposition of the International Labour Organization (ILO). In the present day, incoming vessels are not obliged to plug into ports that provide this service – this lies at their discretion.

He described that in the future, cargo ships that have the necessary infrastructure will begin plugging into the mainland via the shore-to-ship initiative.

Enemalta’s chief said that in just a few years, Malta will have even more energy generation through the second interconnector, which should only bolster Malta’s flexibility to provide this service to ships. He described this to be valuable, considering that “Malta was a pioneer” with its introduction of the shore-to-ship project.

“I think we are moving well. The agreement between IM, TM, and Enemalta on the shore-to-ship supply is sufficient, working, and so far, we have always been able to meet the request of ships,” he said.