Temporary switch to diesel could threaten security of supply, ministry claims

An interim transition to diesel before the country switches to gas in 2015 would be "problematic".

According to the Ministry for Energy, having more than one switch in a short period of time would have consequences environmentally, logistically and for the security of supply.

"A switch to diesel, relying only on the existing limited diesel storage tanks at Delimara, without converting the heavy fuel oil tanks would create logistical problems and threaten security of supply," a spokesperson for Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi told MaltaToday.

The Nationalist Opposition has accused the government of "going back on its word" for not switching to gasoil diesel to fire the power station extension at Delimara.

The issue arose again this week following a MEPA board meeting which approved the extension of an IPPC permit allowing the government to make use of heavy fuel oil to run the power station.

The decision, the Labour government said, had been postponed until after the general election by the previous administration.

After the meeting, which saw Nationalist MP Ryan Callus voting against the permit extension and former minister George Pullicino sitting among the public defending the emissions, the PN said Labour had "deceived" the public in describing the Delimara power station as a "cancer factory".

In comments to MaltaToday, Pullicino, the former Nationalist resources minister, insisted that "no changes were required to switch from heavy fuel oil to gasoil".

Even though the BWSC plant was developed to also run on gasoil, the switch is not as easy as it may sound.

According to the energy ministry spokesperson, because the old Delimara power station phase 1 is required to be in an operational state, the heavy fuel oil tanks cannot be converted to diesel immediately.

Pullicino has insisted that government's decision against switching to gasoil was "in breach of a solemn promise" made by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat.

Despite a 2006 Cabinet policy which stated that no more diesel energy plants were to be installed in Malta, a few years later the Nationalist government accepted a bid submitted by the Danish company BWSC, offering a diesel engine plant operating on heavy fuel oil.

Pullicino refuted suggestions that the PN was suddenly pushing for gasoil: "We are simply judging Muscat by his same yardstick. He said a Labour government would be switching to gasoil if elected and we are holding him accountable to that promise."

The MP also said the Opposition was all for energy generated by gas, but it was "the way which this government wants to go" that it disagreed with.

"What the government is proposing is dangerous in both the environmental and economic sense. The economic consequences which this country will face because of these decisions are huge," Pullicino claimed.

The government side has argued, however, that what the Labour Party committed itself to during the election campaign was "one transition from heavy fuel oil to gas", for reasons of the environment, logistics and the security of supply.

"This serves the best interest of the country and will result in significantly lower emissions and in lower tariffs. This was also based on experts' advice," the energy ministry said.

"If a PN government were elected we would have been lumped with HFO for the next 20 years."