Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1160525
maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 28 AUGUST 2019 7 NEWS JAMES DEBONO ENERGY demand has shot up by 19% between 2013 and 2018 with the major increases regis- tered between 2014 and 2015 (+5.2%) and between 2016 and 2017 (+7.5%). The increase in demand is also mirrored in the number of billable electricity accounts which increased from 274,172 in 2011 to 305,523 in 2018 – an increase of 11%. The sharpest increase in the number of accounts took place between 2016 and 2017 (9,612). This emerges from figures published in the recently pub- lished annual report by the Regulator for Energy and Wa- ter Services, which shows the Electrogas power station – which produces energy from LNG at the Delimara plant – replacing the Malta-Sicily in- terconnector as Malta's major energy supplier. The share of electricity from the inconnector has fallen from 65% in 2016 to 36% in 2017 to just 24% in 2018. On the other hand the share from the Electrogas power station has increased from 37% in 2017, to 53% in 2018. Energy from the Chinese- owned Power Generation Ltd amounted to 15% in 2017 and 16% in 2018. Energy from renewables has more than doubled since 2014, increasing from 3% to 7% in 2018. The REWS report notes that the drop in the use of the in- terconnector reflected an in- crease in the price of its en- ergy, noting "that for 63% of the time the day-ahead hourly wholesale prices were higher than for the same hour in the previous year". The report does not provide comparisons in prices be- tween different providers of energy. How Enemalta gets its electricity Electricity is supplied by the Electrogas plant and D4 (ex- BWSC, now owned by Shang- hai Electric Power) power stations, which are both pri- vately owned and operated; and Enemalta's own plants at Delimara. Enemalta in turn has con- tractual obligations to buy electricity from the Electrogas and D4 power stations that run on gas. Electrogas is operated by a consortium that includes Maltese companies Gasan and Tumas, German compa- ny Siemens and Azerbaijan's Socar. D4, formerly known as the BWSC plant, was sold off to Chinese state company Shanghai Electric Power when the latter bought a stake in Enemalta. A year ago the Daphne Pro- ject, a consortium of inter- national journalists, quoted British energy experts ques- tioning Enemalta's contractu- al obligation to buy gas from Electrogas at a fixed price for five years. This may have cost Malta millions in losses because the international price of gas had dropped since the deal was struck in 2015. The government defended the deal, saying it had sought price stability, while getting private investment to help shift electricity production from the more harmful heavy fuel oil to gas. Energy demand up by 19% since 2013, Electrogas providing half of energy needs Who is producing Malta's energy? 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 10%% 20%% 30%% 40%% 50%% 60%% 70%% 80%% 90%% 100%% 100% 97% 46% 51% 65% 30% 5% 36% 15% 7% 37% 5% 24% 16% 53% 7% Interconnector Power Generation Ltd Enemalta Electrogas Renewable Increase in energy demand 0 0.2K 0.4K 0.6K 0.8K 1K 1.2K 1.4K 1.6K 1.8K 2K 2.2K 2.4K 2.6K -2 -1.23 -0.46 0.31 1.08 1.85 2.62 3.38 4.15 4.92 5.69 6.46 7.23 8 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2,101 2,130 2,240 2,266 2,435 2,491 GWh % increase over previous year Who is producing Malta's energy? 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 10%% 20%% 30%% 40%% 50%% 60%% 70%% 80%% 90%% 100%% 100% 97% 46% 51% 65% 30% 5% 36% 15% 7% 37% 5% 24% 16% 53% 7% Interconnector Power Generation Ltd Enemalta Electrogas Renewable Increase in energy demand 0 0.2K 0.4K 0.6K 0.8K 1K 1.2K 1.4K 1.6K 1.8K 2K 2.2K 2.4K 2.6K -2 -1.23 -0.46 0.31 1.08 1.85 2.62 3.38 4.15 4.92 5.69 6.46 7.23 8 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2,101 2,130 2,240 2,266 2,435 2,491 GWh % increase over previous year