Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/553115
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 9 AUGUST 2015 Opinion 25 lack of power kind of sucks… Labour Party's energy plan – this project is actually two years behind schedule. It also means that, as a result of this delay, there is now no hope at all that existing problems with energy distribution will be solved before next year at the earliest. Now let's look at Thursday's blackout… which followed a similar pattern, even if it had nothing to do with distribution. Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi explained that the problem was caused by a 'fault on the Sicilian side' of the recently-inaugurated interconnector… significantly adding that this interconnector was "supplying the system with around 190MW of electricity, equivalent to almost 50 per cent of the domestic demand" at the time. "This incident shows that Malta cannot depend for its base load on imported electricity, and has to have enough generating power domestically," he said. Hmm. Hang on, Dr Mizzi, but aren't you leaving out a small detail there? Could you also tell us exactly WHY Malta was relying on imported electricity for almost half its energy needs – directly contradicting your own government's declared energy policy – at a time of year when demand is traditionally at its highest? I might be mistaken, but it seems to me that the real reason concerns a delay in the construction of the promised new power station, which (before the election) we were told would be up and running "within two years". Three years down the line, it has not materialised. And Marsa has since been decommissioned… meaning that we are now forced, specifically because of your government's failure to deliver the new power station on time, to rely on a Delimara plant which we all know can't actually cope with the country's needs. That, in a nutshell, is why Malta was importing such a vast proportion of its energy from Sicily last Thursday… instead of producing it locally, as promised, by means of a power station that should technically already be one year old. So on both counts – energy production and distribution – responsibility for Malta's current multiple energy failures can be exclusively laid at the present government's door. Labour has so far failed in precisely the same area that the Nationalists had failed in their own day… leaving us all darkling. Having said this, the same concatenation of events doesn't exactly say very much for the Opposition's equivalent energy plans. For where missed deadlines forced the present administration to reluctantly depend on the Sicily interconnector… the same dependence actually formed the bulk of the Nationalist Party's entire energy policy, as unveiled before the last election. According to the PN manifesto – authored, it will be remembered, by current Opposition leader Simon Busuttil – the interconnector would "provide up to 70% of the country's electricity needs, without producing any emissions." Well, I suppose it's just as well the interconnector wouldn't produce any emissions… seeing as it didn't produce any electricity this week, either. But now that we have all seen how this facility couldn't handle the provision of just 50% of the country's demand… can you just imagine what sort of energy crisis we would be experiencing now, had this plan actually been carried out to the letter...making Malta exclusively dependent on the interconnector for 70% of its energy requirements? This, by the way, was the grand energy strategy of a party whose leader also expressed grave reservations about "China having its finger on our light switch". And yet, when it came to entrusting the Sicilians with a much tighter grip on the same switch, Busuttil seemed to have no qualms of any kind whatsoever. So let's try and work this one out: the Opposition leader was 'uncomfortable' with a Chinese corporation owning 33% of Malta's energy infrastructure… but then, had absolutely no problems with the prospect of Sicily providing a staggering 70% of our electricity, leaving Malta in a situation where it would have no control if (or when, as happened last Thursday) the provision happens to be suspended. Now, what was that about 'Alice in Wonderland' again? Oh, and it bears mentioning also that the PN manifesto didn't even allude to the distribution network at all. It simply ignored what Enemalta itself has repeatedly described as the root cause of the vast majority of Malta's energy problems… while failing utterly to provide a solution to the one problem it did try to tackle. This, then, is the extent of Malta's current energy crisis. And as you can see, it goes far beyond the sort of logistical problem that can be solved by calling in a technician or engineer. What we are talking about here is the total failure of Malta's political duopoly to ever produce a single, functional national energy policy of any kind whatsoever. I admit this brings us no closer to a solution… oh, hang on, maybe it does. Tell you what: instead of talking endlessly about 'building new power stations' and 'strengthening distribution centres'… how about we decommission our failed political system instead… and create a new one in its place that doesn't rely too heavily on a pair of utterly clueless political parties? Hey, it was just an idea. And you never know: unlike Malta's energy sector in the 21st century, it might actually work...