Electricity grid failures isolate Gzira, St Julian’s and Gharb as thousands swelter in heat

Electricity outages overnight caused by faults on high voltage cables have left thousands of people in parts of St Julian’s, Gzira, San Gwann, Għasri, Għarb, San Lawrenz and Kercem sweltering in the heat.

These areas are still without electricity on Saturday morning.

Enemalta said in a statement that cable faults isolated these areas from the national grid.

Screen shot of Enemalta's live outage map, showing the area in the north harbour impacted by faults on the grid

This means that alternative supply routes cannot be used to power up these areas and supply can only be restored once repairs are completed.

“Repair works started immediately on high voltage cable faults detected last night,” Enemalta said.

Ghasri, Gharb and their surrounding areas were hit by a power outage after three faults occurred on the grid in the area

It added that in Gzira two faults developed on 33kv cables (high voltage network) that are “an integral 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, Enemalta is using alternative sources of energy until repairs on these faults are addressed,” the company said.

The company is deploying mobile generators in several localities as a stop gap measure to power up households and businesses.

This is the second consecutive summer in which the Maltese islands are being blighted by regular and prolonged power outages.

Although less severe than last year, the current spate of abnormally high temperatures is causing parts of the electricity grid to buckle.

A review of last year’s power outages carried out by the National Audit Office, which was published earlier this week, found that although the July 2023 heatwave was an abnormal 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.

However, key weaknesses are still apparent.

In Gozo, the whole island was plunged into darkness earlier in the week after a fire destroyed cables supplying electricity to the island.