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16 NEWS maltatoday | SUNDAY • 21 JULY 2024 KURT SANSONE ksansone@mediatoday.com.mt Enemalta's only fault location vehicle leaves Gozitans waiting THE Gozitan villages of Għarb, Għasri, San Lawrenz and Kerċem went dark on Friday evening after faults developed on the electricity grid. But residents were left waiting for hours on end before repairs could start being made since En- emalta's only fault location vehicle was caught up in Malta. It was Nationalist MP Alex Borg who yesterday voiced the island's frustration while lambasting Ene- malta's "second class" treatment of Gozitans. The localities were still without power on Saturday after- noon. Earlier, Enemalta had said three 11kV cable faults occurred in Għasri affecting the supply of elec- tricity to nearby areas. The outage happened at the same time that a fault occurred in Gżira, shutting down electricity in the locality, St Julian's and parts of San Ġwann. Borg said that a fault location vehicle is required to identify the problem areas so that repairs could start but Enemalta's only ve- hicle was on the job in Malta. He called on the company to invest more and have a permanent fault location set up in Gozo. "Common sense dictates that if the distribution network is weak in a particular area such as Gozo, similar equipment should be per- manently stationed in Gozo," Borg said, adding residents were merci- fully waiting to know when elec- tricity would return. "That faults are being caused be- cause of an expired distribution system is already irresponsible; that equipment is not available to fix the faults is an insult," Borg said. He said as an MP from Gozo, his priority when the PN is gov- ernment will be to strengthen the electricity distribution system in Gozo. "This is a right not a luxury," he insisted. On Friday evening, thousands were left sweltering in the heat as electricity grid failures isolated Gzira, St Julian's and the north- west of Gozo. Enemalta said over- night power outages were caused by faults on the high voltage net- work. Most areas were still without electricity throughout Saturday. Enemalta said cable faults "iso- lated these areas from the national grid". This means that alternative sup- ply routes could not be used to power up these localities and sup- ply could only be restored once re- pairs are completed. "Repair works started immedi- ately on high voltage cable faults detected on Friday night," Ene- malta said. It added that in Gzira two faults developed on 33kv cables (high voltage network) that are "an in- tegral part" of the distribution network in the area. Enemalta said that in Gozo, three 11kV cable faults occurred in Għasri affecting the supply of electricity to nearby areas. "Where technically possible, En- emalta is using alternative sources of energy until repairs on these faults are addressed," the company said. The company has been deploy- ing mobile generators in several localities as a stop gap measure to power up households and busi- nesses impacted by outages. This is the second consecutive summer in which the Maltese is- lands are being blighted by regular and prolonged power outages. Although less severe than last year, the current spate of abnor- mally high temperatures is caus- ing parts of the electricity grid to buckle. A review of last year's power out- ages carried out by the National Audit Office, which was published last week, found that although the July 2023 heatwave was an abnor- mal event that triggered faults on the grid, the lack of investment over the past 10 years in the high voltage network was a contributing factor. Enemalta dismissed the NAO's findings as "an opinion", insisting the cause of the power outages was the prolonged heatwave. Nonetheless, the company spent a whole year ripping up roads and laying new cables to bolster the network, an exercise that is con- tinuing. However, key weaknesses are still apparent. In Gozo, the whole island was plunged into darkness last week after a fire destroyed cables sup- plying electricity to the island. Meanwhile, in comments on RTK103 on Saturday morning, Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said improvements to the grid were ongoing but had to be done in phases. "I worry every time we have a power cut, especially when cuts last several hours," she told radio host Andrew Azzopardi. "I wish we could dig up the entire country and do all the work that needs to be done [in one go] but we can't. It needs to be done in phases." Gozitan MP Alex Borg decries 'second class' treatment of Gozitans by Enemalta: 'This is an insult' Alex Borg (inset) criticised the lack of an Enemalta fault location vehicle in Gozo