Original Terna statement claims no fault in interconnector

Enemalta has denied that a widespread power cut last week was caused by faulty settings at Malta’s end of the interconnector with Sicily. The State energy provider yesterday insisted the power cut was a result of a lightning strike in Sicily, denying a story that appeared in the Times of Malta. This newspaper yesterday quoted senior Enemalta sources contradicting statements made soon after the partial blackout by Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi, who said the outage was triggered by a fault in Sicily. The sources claimed preventive settings at Magħtab were too low for the load which the inter­connector was carrying at the time of the incident – 190MW. This newspaper is today publishing a statement it received from the Italian company manning the Sicilian grid – Terna Rete Italia – in which it said the fault originated at the Magħtab terminal station. The correspondence was received last Tuesday morning. For some reason, a few hours later, Terna “replaced” the statement with a joint press release with Enemalta, outlining the conclusions of the inquiry into the incident. Still, the joint explanation seemed to corroborate the claim that the blackout was not due to a fault at Ragusa. In...