Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1504229
energy to Maltese households (and businesses, etc.) through a network of 'cables, pipes, over- head wires, etc.'... ... all of which just happens to be: a) Enemalta's own property; and b) its own direct responsi- bility, to maintain and repair. In fact, the very first sentence of its online misson statement is: "Our engineers and tech- nicians are entrusted with the development, maintenance and operation of the national grid which distributes electricity from different sources of pow- er to all our customers in the Maltese Islands." And besides: even if it DID own both the Delimara power station, and also the Malta-Sic- ily Interconnector... Enemalta would still have no direct con- trol, over the precise amount of power either of those infra- structure nodes can physically provide, at any given moment. Naturally, I can't give you a technical explanation for this state of affairs. Let's just say that (to continue an automo- tive analogy begun by Car- dona himself): "you can slam our foot on the accelerator as hard as you like; but if your car can't exceed a maximum speed of, say, 210kph... well, it just CAN'T! EVER! Full-stop, end of analogy, over-and-out, etc." As for the Interconnector: you could, I suppose, always just 'buy more energy from the European grid', any old time you like... but then, it becomes a question of 'spending taxpay- er's money' – and quite con- siderable amounts of it too, I would imagine - and for that sort of thing, you need more than just the authority of a State-owned energy provider. For that, you need Parliamen- tary approval. In other words: if the prob- lem really WERE (as so many people, myself included, have always believed) down to 'in- sufficient power-generation, to meet the summer demand'... then the responsibility for the latest blackouts would fall squarely onto the shoulders of government itself. As far as I can see, then, this leads us to conclude that En- emalta CEO Jonathan Cardo- na is candidly admitting to us, above, that his own corpora- tion is directly responsible for what he himself defines as the 'sole cause' of the latest pow- er-cuts [Note: and, indirectly, also for past similar ones]. In so doing, he is also open- ing his own corporation up to a rather large slew of 'compen- sation claims', by irate Maltese families who have incurred not-inconsiderable financial losses... especially considering that Cardona himself also sep- arately admits that '[some of] the cables might have been laid badly'. Naturally, I am aware that Enemalta also has an automat- ic trump-card up its sleeve, in such cases. As chairman Ryan Fava told this newspaper yes- terday: "the Enemalta compen- sation scheme will be available to consumers impacted by the power outages. However, [...] this scheme largely applies to fixed assets. Consumers whose food went bad in the fridge or freezer would not be able to get compensation for this..." All the same, however: the offer of compensation is un- deniably on the table... and Energy Minister Miriam Dal- li even added weight to it, by 'not excluding the possibility of government offering addi- tional compensation to people who bore the brunt of the latest power cuts." But then, this only raises a whole bunch of additional questions, such as: If Enemalta owns (and is re- sponsible for) the entire en- ergy distribution network... it doesn't exactly own the road-networks under which those cables and wires are bur- ied, does it? So if it can be demonstrated that some of those faults might have actually been caused by ROADS – not 'cables' – that were 'badly laid (or 'construct- ed', or whatever)... wouldn't that also imply that Infrastruc- ture Malta, Transport Malta, the Infrastructure Ministry - and all the other agencies/reg- ulatory authorities involved in 'road planning': including, pre- sumably, the PA – are all also 'responsible', in part, for the same power outages? And if so... can all those other entities be sued for compensa- tion, too? And where would it all even stop, anyway? I don't know, to be honest. But something tells me that this abnormal summer heat may have done slightly more, than just 'melt a few badly-laid underground cables', here and there. Something tells me it might also have opened up an entire 'Pandora's Box', of sizzling pro- portions, that has been smoul- dering quietly beneath the sur- face for decades... maltatoday | SUNDAY • 23 JULY 2023 OPINION 11 The more I think about it today, however... the more I begin to realise that something, somewhere doesn't quite 'add up'