MEA: Deterioration of electricity distribution systems turning Malta into ‘third world country’

The Malta Employers’ Association has slammed government for electricity outages, saying businesses and households are bearing the cost for the “failures of others.”

It quoted a report published by the National Audit Office last month, which said the recent power outages result from the fact that “historic investments in the HV (high voltage) network were not entirely sufficient to mitigate the prevailing socio-economic and climatic circumstances.”

“Business and industry are therefore having to pay the cost of decade of neglect in investment in infrastructure, together with lack of planning to match energy demand increases with a rapid rise in population have created a crisis situation in Malta’s energy and distribution systems that are affecting people’s quality of life and causing disruptions in many enterprises,” it said.

The employers lobby said promising compensation does not make up for “serious shortcomings”, and while one can justify a one-off payment to compensate for what was envisaged to be a temporary crisis during 2023, the situation cannot continue to be remedied by repeated compensation payments.

“Business is legitimately entitled to expect a stable energy supply as a very basic pre-requisite for investment in Malta,” it said. “the use of generators and auxiliary power sources emit clear signals to the country and the rest of the world, that our infrastructure is insufficient, overstretched and unprepared. The country’s panic measures are evidence that our authorities are firefighting without a long-term strategy to secure security of power supply.”

The MEA also said delays in the implementation of the second interconnector, combined with a deterioration of the distribution systems are turning Malta into “a third world country,” with a consequent corrosion in competitiveness and reputation as a destination for Foreign Direct Investment.

The Association called for a political consensus to address this situation through a long-term holistic energy plan to guarantee an energy infrastructure that matches Malta’s current and future requirements.