Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/815607
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 26 APRIL 2017 News 6 James Debono James Debono Fact-checking Muscat's Was the Delimara power station a cancer factory and was the new LNG plant necessary to close it? JAMES DEBONO asks Will the new energy improve air quality? LNG is definitely a cleaner fuel than heavy fuel oil (HFO). The BWSC plant, like Enemalta's other functional power stations namely Delimara 1 and Delimara 3, were operated on HFO. The BWSC plant is now being converted to gas by its Chinese owners, Shang- hai Electric Power. Under the gov- ernment's energy plans, Delimara 1 was to close down when the new gas power station comes on stream. The Marsa power station has already been closed down. According to Enemalta the con- version to gas is expected to re- duce emissions by 50% and par- ticulate matter by 90%. But LNG is less clean than the interconnector which produces emissions in other countries given that it allows Mal- ta to purchase energy generated elsewhere in Europe. The Environment Impact As- sessment (EIA) for the new Elec- trogas plant which was inaugurat- ed on Monday says the shift from heavy fuel oil to LNG will deliver overall positive health impacts for the population, mainly due to the closure of the Marsa power sta- tion - something already foreseen when the Malta-Sicily intercon- nector was approved by the previ- ous administration. According to the EIA, emission targets for both nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and atmospheric particu- late matter (PM2.5) can only be met "under the assumption of ex- tensive use of the 'clean" electricity from both the interconnector and the gas-fired units at Delimara." Additionally, the EIA makes it clear that air quality targets can only be reached if energy demand does not increase over current lev- els. Does the new set up make us more dependent on foreign companies? Malta is already dependent on imported fossil fuels. The gas plant, built by Electrogas, will have a capacity of 200MW and the plan is to replace the interconnec- tor which is owned by the Mal- tese government, as the primary source of electricity. In December 2014, then energy minister Konrad Mizzi had said that, for the first year, Enemalta would source 30% of its electric- ity requirements from the BWSC plant, 50% from the Electrogas power station and 20% from the interconnector with Sicily. In this way the Shangai Electric plant (formerly known as BWSC) will be buying LNG from Electro- gas while the operators of the new plant will be selling energy direct- ly to Enemalta's national grid. In this way 80% of Malta's energy will be coming from one source. The agreement with Electro- gas commits Malta to buy energy from Electrogas for 18 years, five of which will be covered by a fixed price. The government has com- mitted itself to eventually replace the Floating Storage Unit, consist- ing of a massive tanker anchored in Marsaxlokk with a gas pipeline connecting Malta to Europe. Azerbaijan state company SO- CAR is one of the owners of the new Electrogas plant. SOCAR is responsible for the importation of natural gas to Malta. Recently the International Board of Direc- tors (BoD) of the Extractive In- dustries Transparency Initiative (EITI) suspended Azerbaijan's membership in the coalition. EITI promotes the open and account- able management of oil, natural gas and mineral resources with the involvement of governments, companies and civil society or- ganisations Was a new power station necessary to close old Delimara and Marsa plants? Not necessarily especially if en- ergy demand does not increase. A study by economist Gordon Cor- dina published in 2011 had fore- seen that by 2014, when Marsa would have stopped producing energy, the old Delimara power station would have provided less than 1% and the interconnector a staggering 76% of energy demand while 23% would have been sup- plied by the BWSC plant. In fact the interconnector was providing 75% of electricity across Malta when it was cut off from the grid following a storm in Sicily, that led to a nationwide blackout in January. Marsa which is the most pollut- ing plant was closed down months before the new LNG plant was opened thanks to energy supplied from the interconnector. But this excludes a sudden increase in en- ergy demand. New development projects planned over the next decade may increase energy de- mand substantially. However, government insists that the new LNG power plant was pivotal, as Enemalta always seeks to maintain what it refers to as 'security of supply' – having enough supply in reserve to cater "We are finally closing down a cancer factory and now we are producing clean energy. This comes on the same day when it was announced that the country has a surplus of €100 million," Muscat told guests attending the inauguration of the new Electrogas plant. Joseph Muscat met SOCAR president Rovnag Abdullayev in September 2015 in Valletta