Tuesday, 16th June 2009 - 19:09CET
Enemalta blames gas turbine for power cuts. Gatt apologises, MP asks about compensation
Marsa power station.
Last updated 9.10 p.m.
Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt this evening apologised for today's power cuts and said he was sure this was not sabotage but a technical fault, even though it coincided with the Enemalta budget debate in Parliament, as happened two years ago.
He said Enemalta would do its best to avoid a repetition.
Earlier, Enemalta said that although the cause of the power cuts was still being investigated, a technical fault had developed in a gas turbine at the Marsa Power Station. It said power was restored to all areas by 8.50 p.m.
The corporation said the turbine's unexpected fault in the morning resulted in an instant loss of 30MW causing the remaining plant to trip on overload. This loss of generation capacity had a negative cascading effect on the remaining generation capacity at the Marsa Power Station which in turn also brought down the generating capacity of the Delimara Power Station.
Enemalta said this led to the first blackout occurring at 10.30am with a complete loss of generation capacity. Immediate steps were taken to re-energise both power stations starting with the gas turbines at Delimara which have a quick start capability.
When the first black out occurred Enemalta engineers could not immediately identify the cause of the first fault and the gas turbine was also placed in service.
When the re-energisation process was almost complete, another fault occurred at 4pm, on the same gas turbine. Once again this resulted in the loss of all the generation capacity at both the Marsa and Delimara Power stations. A complete black out re-occurred and a re-energisation process was started immediately.
The electricity grid was gradually restored without the use of Gas Turbine No.9 at the Marsa Power station.
"Enemalta engineers are working round the clock to repair and also protect the grid and the gas turbine from triggering further electrical black outs," the corporation said.
Electricity was restored at Tarxien, Bulebel, M'Skala, Marsa, Valletta and Hal Far by 6 p.m. whilst ST. Microelectronics, Gudja, Bugibba, St. Venera B'Kara, Mellieha and Gozo got power back by 7.30 p.m.. Central Malta including paceville and St. Julian's were re-energised next. and power was back to all areas shortly before 9 p.m.
In Parliament, Labour MP Gavin Gulia said that rather than making his speech, he would read out the people's concerns as expressed in comments sent to timesofmalta.com throughout the day. He then proceeded to read them all, without mentioning the senders.
He was later criticised by Dr Gatt for having wasted part of his time in the House saying the country was not run according to what was said on blogs.
Meanwhile, today's power cuts saw hundreds of workers being sent home early as businesses closed down. Larger businesses and the banks kept going thanks to power generators. Restaurateurs complained of loss of stocks as power to fridges went dead. Other shopowners complained that they could not use cash cards.
The police issued a notice giving an emergency telephone number to police headquarters as its lines went dead.
Some people experienced problems with their mobile phones, although GO plc in a statement said its back-up systems ensured that there was no disruption.
The power problems also caused disruptions at PBS, where a reduced main news bulletin started half an hour late because of a break in transmission, the newscaster saying damage had been caused to the transmitter.
In Parliament, transmissions of the evening sitting went dead soon after Dr Gatt made his apology. Service was later restored.
Labour MP Gino Cauchi, who spoke later on the adjournment, asked if workers and businesses who had lost a working day or suffered damages would be able to claim compensation.
Enemalta's explanations were not enough and consumers had to be shown respect, Mr Cauchi said.
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Comments
Blogs written here and elsewhere are the people's barometer..... and yes parliament should listen to blogs..... MIGHT IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT DR GATT!!!!
Well I understand your frustation - even though I don't know what your job entails. BUT, quite like yourself - I work in an office environment and we are dependent on e-mails and phones much more than you can imagine (that day was my only off day by coincidence).
A day later, as I entered the office, I obviously asked how the situation went, and guess what? It was a normal business day with no complaints nor loss of clients (thanks to the generator I might add).
Anyway my point is, accidents happen - and IF it was a strike or something similar, we would have known for sure. And that's when you should get angry.
And one more thing Mr/s F. Galea - I addressed my comment to people who were at home blogging on the Times of Malta moaning that they can't use their PC, and blaming both parties for what happened - not to business individuals like yourself.
Good day everyone
Well aren't you the lucky one! I would have loved to have been at the beach, taking an afternoon nap, or walking around Bugibba instead of having to deal with international clients wondering why we had not responded to urgent emails, faxes etc. with the office downloading emails to mobile phones which subsequently died!! This went on all day for us - that is the point. Its all well and good if the power cut didnt affect you but thousands of people lost a days work because of this - and so, quite rightly, we feel angered by it.
BUT YES! THIS ACCIDENT WAS ENTIRELY AVOIDABLE! (or at least, greatly mitigated!)
There will an investigation and the outcome will be that it was due to some individual or collective human error: Lack-of-knowledge, Lack-of-maintenance, Lack-of-resources, Lack-of-planning, Lack-of-testing etc... The usual!
Reliability is a sophisticated science and the Enemalta guys know that! It is the politicians who sometimes don’t seem to appreciate it! Certainly, the odds of this happening would have been far fewer, had we SERIOUSLY invested in the KNOWLEDGE, MOTIVATION and EQUIPPAGE of our engineering workforce.
Some of our half-baked students who are making it through the filters of our educational system by exploiting its many faults may eventually be at the root of such accidents! In the short term, some may be able to fool employers with their dubious qualifications of little substance... The politicians love numbers, big numbers. So we’re produce graduates at six pence to the dozen! But at the expense of quality! Lecturers are even asked to turn a blind eye to allow struggling students through the system, to boost statistics!
Yet, in the end YOU-WILL-NEVER-FOOL-THE-LAWS-OF-NATURE. If you adopt this perilous route, nature will come back to bite you with a vengeance. If you’re incompetent you WILL FAIL eventually. It will be a very sad day when people have to die and business folds as a result of this.
I firmly believe that there exists no other profession that bears such limitless responsibility as does the engineering profession. It is one darn hard job that leaves you sleepless until you get things right! Put yourself in the shoes of Ing. Alex Tranter – How does that kind of responsibility feel?
Such accidents, although unfortunate, highlight our HUGE dependency on genuine engineering skill. I like to see this as a much needed WAKE-UP CALL to *ALL* our Politicians and Administrators on both sides of Parliament! Times have changed. The degree of engineering skill required by a developed country is synonymous with the survivability and long term viability of that country.
We are only lucky if nobody was hurt and that there were no disastrous repercussions.
Any country's infrastructure, industry, health, transport, environment, finance, economy and indeed anything that matters depends on carefully engineered and properly maintained systems of incredible complexity. That ONLY comes through genuine dedication and a reward structure based on true MERITOCRACY!!!
This is NOT what I am witnessing EVERYDAY and I fear the worst for Malta, if this trend continues.
i was present at marsa yesterday, if all these moaners had to be in the station just watching some would have understud what we guys do to earn our living. One thing i would like to say that doing our jobs (fully kited in our safety wear) not even one person lamented that is a very tough day. They all gave 100% plus. In such circumstances please think off us trying our best to restore energy ASSP.
Engineers are well paid, qualified professionals, and it is their duty and task, not only to diagnose problems and fault, but also to prevent such faults from happening, especially when there is the risk of sending a whole country in blackout!!!
We have engineering knowledge about a fault whenever we think we know that the cause from which a fault occured is, its cause, and that this fact cannot be otherwise, if any fault is really the subject of engineering knowledge, it cannot be otherwise than it is.
If you can handle that then you know what engineers have to face.
I wouldn't want to imagine the moaning if, God forbid, we would have a disaster just like Abruzzo residents had a few months ago!
Yes it does make a difference with one day of no electricity, as like mention in the article people where sent home when turning up for there jobs, a lot of restaurant which don't have back up power lost a lot of stock, and companies in Malta which depend a lot on electricity lost a lot of money.
And if none have been reported, there could have been car accidents because even the traffic lighs where cut off. And BTW how come in Malta 2-5% of the electricity is coming from green energy, and we don't even have backup power for at least traffic lights?
You are so politically blinded that you do not even read what there is to read.
1) I never mentioned Alfred Sant in my contribution. Maybe that you forgot who actually said these words, but believe I do remember perfectly well.
2) Yes the Marsa PowerStation is over 40 years old and I remember... it used to work on coal back then thanks to the Dom Mintoff's Labour Government. Do you remember the coal heaps in Marsa? The gas turbines were bought in the 90's to move away from coal thanks to the Fenech Adami's Nationalist Government. .
3) The Delimara PowerStation is 19 years old and was built by Fenech Adami's Nationalist Government. .
.
4) Look who's talking? It seems that your mind (not just your clock) stopped working because you do not want to remember what the situation in Malta was before the Nationalist Government started to build the Delimara Power Station after 1987 - the YEAR of FREEDOM from the Socilaist Government..
I don't know if you have realized but we live in a modern society which wrong as it may be depend on electricity to keep going. During the blackout no one could do nothing! It is a fact that most jobs cannot be done either in the dark, in the heat or without the required equipment. Why shouldn't the many people sent early from work because they could not do there jobs not get some sort of compensation?
If this happened any place else the electrical company might as well file for bankruptcy then pay the millions due in compensation!
ta' zmien Mintoff u ta nies li ghadhom fil-partit, dejjem bla dawl u bla ilma. Dan kollu ghax kien hemm hsara ta darba. Mela kemm misna hadna compensation fi zmien il-Labour meta ghexna taht l-ghaks konna insiru sinjuri. Turisti fil-lukandi kienu jusaw it-torch biex iqaxxru il-lehja u lanqas ilma biex jinhaslu u ilma bahar ghal flushing. Jien qatt u qatt ma nisma
dawk iz-zmienijiet ghal ghomri kollu mhux bhal issa kullhadd jaf li qed jghix u jgawdi. Shame on you
You promised to analize what caused us the pain after the last European parliament election. Well now is the chance, pull up your socks and clean up your closet.
Shame on you all!!!
Typical PN arrogance. Go on roll over everybody. Install power units that daily emit tons of residue in the air. All this against better judgement. What is this about sabotage? Are you implying that during labour governments, there were sabotage cases? Did the labourites sabotage the power station when their own government was in power? Or did someone else do it? About compensation? Go ask businessmen who lost business due to the power cuts. Ask shopowners who had to close shop and send employees home. Ask the restauranteurs who had to throw food away because their freezers were without power for such a long. As the common citizen who's appliances were ruined because of surges when the power was restored. In England, another EU member, when power fails for 7 consequtive hours a cheque is automatically posted to the households concerned. Forget politics and let some light shine through to you (if there are no more power cuts).
Are we sure gonzipn are not in pre-election mode? If not; I guess a white elephant is born.......................
Why doesn't our Government ensure that our power suppliers have redundancy? Are we seriously kidding ourselves thinking that Malta can sustain a power station on its own when most European countries purchase their power from other countries ? and why should we pay high electricity bills , one of the highest in Europe for a substandard product?? Why should government be extravagant again with our money to upgrade the existing power station? Let us face it - ultimately it will cost the tax payer much less if we had to use Italy's infrastructure to supply us with power - and also benefit from redundancy......Let us come out of the DARK AGES!
We read about the PN Parliamentary Group meeting and the exchange by Ministers George Pullicino and Austin Gatt.
We read the article by Austin Gatt to correct the media's interpretation of what he said during an interview.
Malta was in total shut down due to KPI's vigilant EneMalta. The people spoke through the ToM online blog. These were read in Parliament by Hon Gavin Gulia.
Come Minster Austin Gatt and is reported by the ToM as replying:
"He (Gavin Gulia) was later criticised by Dr Gatt for having wasted part of his time in the House saying the country was not run according to what was said on blogs."
This all means that the citizens can go and sing Marco Masini famous song and that "HANZIR TAQTALU DENBU, HANZIR JIBQA".
This all happened in less than a week and this confirms that one week in politics is too long to remain consistent.
Some transaction run into thousands of liri.
As to the comments, I'm no millionaire.
To achieve full energy independence we need to have many hamsters running on wheels to generate the necessary electricity. It would also provide food and fur for the 30,000 families that do not pay the surcharge. Also they are fully bio-degradable, so they do not harm the environment.
1) Alfred Sant never dismantled the Delimara power station 'gebla gebla' as you are mentioning even though it ruined one of Malta's most beautiful village once and FOREVER.
2) The Marsa powerstation is over 40 years old. Remember... it used to work on coal back then. The gas turbines were bought in the 90's to move away from coal.
3) The Delimara powerstation is 19 years old.
4) We're living in 2009 but your clock seems to have stopped working decades ago.
Did he forgot the 70's & 80's ??? . Oh I forgot we did not have the privileges of Internet, cell Phones, and the local papers were censored L.O.L
A Very Big Deal Gulia ! biggest joke Ever.
On one phrase you are right "we are suffering the consequences", but not because of Dom Mintoff. If you discuss something state all the facts. When the PN government decided to build the Delimara Powerstation, he boasted that new powerstation would supply Malta, Gozo and also if required part of southern Sicily. Now adays facts show differently. Malta needs both powerstations working in parallel. Guess the 16 years of Dom Mintoff don't fit such equation. For the love of God please say the whole story.
At least my next bill will be cheaper having saved 10 hours of electricity and water yesterday!
As it was sais here we didn't have power in Gzira before 9 P.M. Someone was suggesting that this should be normal in other European Countries.
It definitely isn't , i am originally from Portugal , wich can´t be considered on top developed (i would say we are mid league ;) European countries and i never saw a Power Failure for more than 2 or 3 hours. When i lived in Spain it was was the same ,and mostly due to storms or bad weather in general not because some guy didnt know how to maintain a Gas turbine. mind you that we are talking about "local" power failures , never National power failures.
The has to be a backup plan , we cannot be out of power in the whole country at the same time. Its like going back to cave times . Is this how the money for our now (a lot) more expensive utility bills is being used??
Oil is cheaper yet we are paying a lot more than ever plus we are left one full working day without power ....
Thanks.
Just if you think that this happens in Malta or in isolated, non grid attached systems the following are the main ones in the last 10 years or so -
1994-1996-various in the northwest United States between ,
1998 - Quebec, Auckland NZ, Central North America,
1999- Quebec and New England, 70% of Brazil,
2000 - South Portugal,
2003 - London, Ontario, whole of Italy (fault being in Switzerland!),
2005 - 50% of Greece, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, Atlantic Coast of US, Japan,
2006 - Auckland NZ, Philadelphia, London (twice in the same year), New York, Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Spain and Portugal (in the same time - triggered by a switch off in Germany),
2007 - Victoria, Atlantic Coast Canada, Surrey England, Oklahoma,
2008 California, Melbourne, Chicago,
2009 - Toronto, Kentucky, State of Victoria-Australia, Kent, Sydney.
A number of areas/cities are mentioned more than once and in some cases in the same year!
Your guess is right. These power outages do not occur in other, developed European countries. Obviously I say the word "developed" because there is no way that Malta could be considered a "developed" country when each and every month we get a complete blackout in our residence. Not even in Algeria do they get such massive blackouts! SHAME ON YOU ENEMALTA. SHAME ON YOU GOVERNMENT.
And more importantly, where is the compensation we are long due?
P.S. I am still waiting for GO to compensate me for a week of lost Internet, even though myself, my family and many other friends have now switched ISP and are rather happy with making this choice.
Oil had gone up prior to the last two elections, but he and Gonzi didn't mention it before.
Next in line is gas.
What about the miserly reduction in the unit price while the fixed tariffs supposedly for meters rent went up?
Who do you think you are trying to fool Agostino Pio.
Those who made a bet that energy products will see a price increase after the elections have won hands down.
Come next election it will be the greatest landslide victory for Labour that any country has ever experienced.
when we pay dearly to have a decent service from Enemalta. The corporation and the minister
concerned should get their act in order and make sure these things do not happen again. After all we are in the EU and in the 21st Century and not a third world country living in the 19th Century!
How can you hold someone accountable for an accident ? Things go wrong sometimes.
We should be thanking Enemalta staff for their hard work to get the systems back online instead of trying to blame an accident on someone.
@ A Abela
it was thousand of liri yesterday and thousands of euros today ...... you must be filthy rich .... any openings with your company ??
Why do people have to politicize everything?
Power in Tarxien (and Paola) only came back at 8.30pm.
I don't understand either why this is turned into a political issue. I'm pretty sure the minister did not intend to allow such a fault to happen...after all, wouldn't it be a blight on his performance? This is something that happens...
But didn't anyone wonder about our great-grandfathers' times when 'no power' was the norm? And wasn't it nice and quiet though? Wonderful!
ELECTION PN PROGRAMME 1987
Don't think these backup systems are working well since my mobile and my wife mobile's were without reception most of the day.
Times do really change. Thanks to successive Nationalist Governments.
fi zminijiet ohra kienu jghidu li sabutaggi my friend
How do they expect to retain foreign IT business if we can't keep our servers juiced up.
Secondly I have 2 comments. Can our government and the readers of the times.com stop referring to this as a BLOG. This is not a blog, this is a news article that people have left comments on, it's not a forum, a blog, etc... Dr Gatt should be ashamed that he doesn't know the difference. I CAN comment on a blog, 'blog' being an online diary published as an editorial for the world to see; but a news feed cannot be a blog.
Irrespective of politics, whether one is a PN or PL supporter we are here concerned with Enemalta, how it is being run and what it is investing in. It is true that technical faults can occur, everywhere. But, to get a second blackout is clearly shameful. Something is wrong. We do not want any more investigations or press releases. We want long-term solutions. I am indeed very concerned and sad to see that Enemalta is investing in 70 M Euros of 'intelligent meters' when in reality, the consumer at the end of the day needs electricity. We may have smart meters at home...but we'll still have blackouts. Are smart meters really a priority? I lived abroad for some years...and only once...I knew there was a power cut...in a snowstorm. It lasted for just over one hour...and to my surprise, in the next bill we got a compensation for the disservice caused by lack of power. What about such a scheme Minister Gatt ? By a policy stating that for every hour without power, customers get ZZ Euros back, it will force Enemalta to do its *real* best to avoid such situations!!!
Does this reflect the importance the Hon. Minister gives to the grievances/feelings of the Maltese Citizen?!!!!!!
What a shame, no one is responsible, no compensations nothing what so ever! But the same old story happening over and over again. And it’s always during this time of the year when the heat starts picking up!!
Incidentally parts of Mosta witnessed no less than 3 power cuts last month. Maybe it was a kind of rehearsal for the big day? Shame it lasted so long with the resultant losses! Shame on you and your 'par idejn sodi ' Hon Prime Minister.
This power outage is something I would never have expected to happen in this country.
Anyways, even in the European grid has failures, too - as happened in 2006:
http://www.rvs.uni-bielefeld.de/Bieleschweig/ninth/SiekerB9Slides.pdf
Having said that, may I ask what would have been the situation in Malta if the Delimara Power Station had to be dismantled (gebla gebla they told us) as the old MLP said it would do if returned to power many many years ago?
I also would like to remind all and sundry the situation we lived in under a Labour Government in the seventies and eighties, when our street lighting was alternately light up and when power cuts like today's were the order of the day and not just the one off exception.
Finally Dr. Gatt, the country is not run by what is said on blogs, but it is also people that write in these blogs that put you where you are in the first place, so i suppose you should show a little more respect to what people are telling you!
Solar panels and wind turbines will make us energy indepndant.
It would be an utter waste of public money to invest in PV panels or wind farms at this stage. PV panels are not efficient when the temperature is high and wind turbines are useless in places where the wind is hot like ours. Warm air has less energy to rotate a wind turbine.
We will end up with a power station equipped with turbines just the same, just in case there is no wind and the maintenance costs would double!...and that is not cheap.
Connect to Scicily asap!
1) In the early evening, my mobile was not able to send/receive any calls. SMS was still working albeit with a slight delay. I am a GO subscriber.
2) I agree with Maria Curmi that we should be given a day's rental discount in our bills. We don't have water either, as the Reverse Osmosis stops working after a lengthy power failure, even though the power is now back.
3) "...said he was sure this was not sabotage but a technical fault, even though it coincided with the Enemalta budget debate in Parliament, as happened two years ago..." This gives a LOT of food for thought....
4) Any my last comment: it's the 21st century, and our country can still be brought to its knees...
Two points i want to raise.
First Point....
Did anyone notice how smoothly the traffic seems to have been today.... no traffic pile ups at traffic lights ... An idea for the government to save electricity... do away with a some of the extra traffic lights. ... I am sure this would reduce congestion of cars and people will be less annoyed with waiting behind other cars waiting for the lights to go green. By all means keep the ones most neccessary... like the lights at the cemetry cross roads in Marsa.. and some others that are really vital.
Second Point.
Which government department will I send my bill for all the rotten food that defrosted in my freezer.
Its really sad to see such immature comments and from now on I won't waste my time reading such childish arguments...
get a life all of you
The Enemalta Generation Plan 2006 had warned that there will be no reserve capacity by summer 2009, and recommended that Delimara be upgraded asap to be up and running by end 2008.
We're in the midst of summer 2009, with no upgrade in sight, and with a very dubious tendering process under scrutiny which well may end up in court resulting in further delays.
How can we encourage foreign (and local) investment with this kind of shoddy and irresponsible management of the basic utilities?
Somebody must be held accountable. Heads must roll.... not engineers' heads.... but strategic planners' heads i.e. our cabinet ministers and their top advisors
You must be joking.
Agostino Pio has already announced today that we will have to face increased electricity and water tariffs because the price of oil has gone up. He didn't say this before the MEP's and the Local Councils election even though the price of oil had gone up prior to these elections. There goes Gonzi's sensitivity just two weeks after the MEP landslide PL victory.
Pullicinos
The cable to Sicily will not solve the problems. If I remember correctly it is rated at 100MW which means that should a turbine suddenly drop out the same thing will happen. Malta will be without electricity because the cable will be overloaded and the trip circuits will operate so that damage will not be caused to the cable through excessive power being demanded. We need to do a good job here in Malta before spending so much on the cable to Sicily.
Home: No problem, have generator backup. Having said that, I foolishly forgot to re-fill with fuel from the last power cut earlier this month. No problem, jump in car to go to the bank for some money from the ATM :-( No ATM and at the bank door is the manager standing behind a "closed" sign using his mobile. No problem, I still have ten euros so at least I can get some fuel :-) Back into the car and off to the petrol station but oh gloom - Attendant sitting in a deck chair waving cars through as they have no generator to pump fuel. :-(
Back home (faster than usual as the traffic lights are not working and therefore did not have the usual long delay waiting for nothing). Garage the car (manually having to open the electric door of course) and just hope that the generator keeps running until the power is restored. Power comes on, put away generator, power goes off, get out the generator and just keep hoping it lasts. Power on (for now) LOL.
No Dr Gatt. It is run by arrogance and incompetence !!!
Everyone yuo talk to is fed up and stressed !! What happened to the easy going way of Maltese life. ?
This is what the PN has manged to do in all these years in goverment. !!!!!
DEJJAQTUNA hu XEBAJTUNA HU ISSA QED TEQERDUNA UKOLL !!!
Tony Caruana
EX NAZZJONALIST !!
Surely someone should have realised that some mulfunction is going to happen-Chairman of Enemalta should offer his resignation immediately
I also have a queryto make. As an Enemalta client, do I have any rights? Because if yes, what about the compensation for today's loss due to the companies inability to ensure its service, being the sole energy provider!
And by the way, Dr Gatt, although you may not take any notice on what is said on blogs, please remember that someone else took notice on a frivolous matter like that of the President's photograph.....
Blogs written here and elsewhere are the people's barometer..... and yes parliament should listen to blogs..... MIGHT IS NOT ALWAYS RIGHT DR GATT!!!!
For several hours today both my wife's and my mobile had no network connection here on Gozo! We use GO for this service!
I think this blackout tops that horrible one back in summer 2002
This happens all the time, I'm sure "technical faults" of this nature occur in other European countries (correct me if I am wrong)
Outdated machiner
And we all say 'Unacceptable!'.
I am not that sure whether the cable is the solution to this problem, like some of you are thinking.....
The small maltese grid necessitates of small units of not more than 20MW so that when one fails the others do not go on overload.