Businesses affected by recent power cuts are set to receive some financial relief after the Government announced a compensation scheme.
A spokesperson for the Energy Ministry tells WhosWho.mt that while the full details of the scheme will be announced at a later stage, it will follow the same approach as the compensation mechanism introduced after previous major power cuts.
Following the widespread power cuts of July 2023, businesses became eligible for a one-off compensation payment based on how long the power cuts lasted.
The 2023 compensation mechanism
As a minimum, businesses that experienced between six to eight hours of power cuts were entitled to a one-off payment equivalent to their average monthly electricity consumption for June, July and August 2023.
This means that if their bills over those three months was an average of €150, they got a full €150 refund.
Compensation increased in line with the duration of the outage, with the highest payout reserved for businesses left without electricity for more than 48 hours.
These businesses were entitled to compensation equivalent to 200 per cent of their average monthly electricity consumption, effectively the value of two months’ electricity bills.
Compensation was capped at €10,000 per business.
This scheme was purely intended as Government compensation for power cuts.
Any claims for damage to equipment and appliances caused by power cuts are handled through a separate Enemalta compensation scheme, while a separate compensation mechanism applies for households.
Several parts of Malta experienced power cuts during an intense heatwave that drove electricity demand to a new record of 741MW on Tuesday, significantly higher than the previous record of 663MW registered in the summer of 2023.
This Government said that this exceptional demand placed sustained pressure on the distribution network.
“Our priority has been, and remains, to restore the electricity supply in the shortest possible time,” Energy Minister Miriam Dalli said.
“At the same time, we want to ease the difficulties people are facing during this period.”
“We will therefore once again apply the compensation scheme that has been used in the past, while continuing with the unprecedented investment being made in the energy sector.”