A statement by the Government this morning said that a permit for the installation of the interconnector between Malta and Sicily has been issued by the Italian Environment Ministry.

The original interconnector route passed through waters being used for oil exploration by an Italian company and with the route now changed, the permit has been issued.

The statement said that the Government had to deal with the problem as soon as possible, as the previous Government had failed to make the nature of the situation public.

The Government had been working with the Italian authorities to devise a new route for the cable.

The Maltese Ministry for Energy and Water Conservation int its statement thanked the Italian Government for its collaboration.

The Ministry commented that the permit covers the connection of the interconnector with Marina di Ragusa as well as the laying of cables over 20km under roads leading to Terna substation in Ragusa.

The permit was issued with a set of conditions which had to be met and that are to be addressed by Enemalta and Terna before the end of May.

This interconnector will able Malta to use energy generated in Europe, which is then distributed through the European grid and will reduce Malta’s dependence on oil.

MEPA, last year, said that “through this project, Malta will benefit from being connected to a much larger power system, which will supply an appreciable overload capability that will improve the stability of the local power system in case of local generation plant failure. Additionally, through this connector, Malta will facilitate its renewable energy programme. Large scale renewable energy generation, especially wind, is known to be intermittent, and so the country needs to have a sufficiently sized and stable source to cater for the intermittent supply.”

“The project will also ensure that the Island’s local generating plant could be used more optimally to reduce emissions and improve local air quality,” MEPA said.

At the present time the electricity generated at the Delimara Power Station is 571MW, with the interconnector it will be increased to 685MW. The interconnector could, in an emergency, boost the power by an extra 100 megawatts for an additional hour.

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