Despite irrefutable evidence of a sharp rise in demand, State energy provider Enemalta failed to carry out the promised capital investment in the distribution network, until it was completely exposed in the July 2024 power cuts fiasco.  

This damning conclusion emerged from an investigation by the National Audit Office into Enemalta’s level of planning in terms of the electricity distribution network.

In its conclusions,  the NAO questioned the decrease in capital investment in the high voltage  distribution system, particularly as this was  the area in which the faults of summer 2023 occurred.

It transpires that in the decade between 2014 and 2023 the total amount of allocated funds to strengthen the network was €177.6 million. However, these funds were not fully utilised as the money which was  actually spend was just €111.4 million, that is €66.2 million less than the budgeted amount.

Allocated funds (€)Capex (€)Variance (€)
201413,587,10014,550,671963,571
201522,906,55412,726,436-10,180,118
201623,758,33217,624,663-6,133,669
201728,484,95719,826,601-8,658,356
201822,981,38713,571,944-9,409,443
201915,102,9997,872,024-7,230,975
202017,742,0378,489,056-9,252,981
202110,876,0004,780,423-6,095,577
202211,150,0006,232,954-4,917,046
202311,000,0005,736,684-5,263,316
Totals177,589,366111,411,456-66,177,910

Enemalta justified this discrepancy saying this was due to the various limitations which restricted the amount of work it could carry out in any given year, citing the number of available contractors, procurement issues related to high voltage cables and limited internal human resource limitations. In this context, no reason was given why year, after year the company kept allocating funds which admittingly could not be spent entirely.

During the period under review, demand continued to grow regardless of the climatic conditions which were blamed for the nationwide blackouts. Such trend was clearly obvious from the number of electricity meters installed which rose steadily from 291,426 in 2014 up to 377,311 in 2023. The pattern reflected the increase in population and construction industry boom.  

In its final remarks the NAO noted that, even through a high-level analysis, it was apparent that deficiencies in Enemalta’s planning and capital investment in the high voltage distribution network during the scoped period, negatively impacted its operational performance.

While meteorological statistics confirm that the situation which manifested itself last summer during a protracted period of elevated temperature was the highest within the scoped period, NAO concluded that shortcomings in the planning and investment, to varying degrees, contributed to the prolonged power outages experienced in some localities in July 2023.  

A year down the line, there are clear signs that the power distribution network is being overwhelmed despite the repeated pledges that improvements were being made to be better prepared for the hot summer months.