Simon Busuttil’s €14 million subsidy claim ‘a fable’

A statement by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil claiming that the government will be increasing its subsidies to Enemalta by €14 million “is a fable”, the government said.

In a statement, it explained that the €14 million which the Opposition leader made reference to were payments, according to EU directives, that Enemalta had to make to ensure security of supply as per global norms.

“Even though our country will have three operators generating electricity, Enemalta has the obligation to operate capacity reserves to make up for any eventuality,” it said.

The government argued that the Act of Entrustment was explained in detail by Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi in parliament earlier in the day: “If the opposition leader had been in parliament when this explanation was delivered, he would have understood this concept.”

The government said the Nationalist government itself had planned for capacity reserves reflecting the risks the country would have run if the biggest electricity generation turbine – that of 60MW – were to suffer damages.

“As from next year, our biggest source of energy will be the 200MW interconnector and the capacity reserve reflects this generation,” it said.

The government said that Enemalta would be shouldering its responsibilities, paying all the costs it is set to incur. It said, that if the government had not carried out a number of changes, the government would have had to pay around €190 million in feed-in tariffs to Enemalta until 2020.