The Malta Employers Association (MEA) stated that the current sporadic electricity outages, that are affecting both households and businesses, “are unacceptable and are crippling to the industry and business.”

As a result, MEA remarked in a statement, innocent parties are bearing the full cost of “the failures of others.”

The association made reference to the report published by the National Audit Office last month, highlighting that recent power outages result from the fact that “historic investments in the high voltage network were not entirely sufficient to mitigate the prevailing socio-economic and climatic circumstances.”

Therefore, it expressed its belief that businesses 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.”

MEA underscored that promising compensation for powercuts does not make up for “serious shortcomings”.

It noted that 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.”

The association continued that business is legitimately entitled to expect a stable energy supply as “a very basic pre-requisite” for investing in Malta.

The MEA shared that it is grateful for the work and dedication of Enemalta’s employees for working around the clock to alleviate pressure and ensure the least disruption possible.

“However, at the same time, 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 association remarked.

Frustrated, it said that the “inexplicable 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 FDI.”

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