Electricity grid should include concurrent expansion and improvement of network management and information systems.
The recent power outages indicate several vulnerabilities in Malta’s electricity infrastructure that demand immediate and strategic intervention.
It seems that while foundational network management and information systems like smart meters, Enemalta’s SCADA system and operator-assisted restoration are deployed, it is unclear whether and if more advanced technologies such as Smart Meter outage management, Fault Location, Isolation and Service Restoration (FLISR) and Distributed Fibre Sensing are in place. SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition.
It is unacceptable that, in 2026, it took Enemalta several hours to locate a major cable fault on Comino, leaving thousands of people without reliable electricity throughout the night.
Momentum executive member, Dr Alastair Farrugia, said: “Better technology can certainly help Enemalta detect problems faster, manage faults more effectively and reduce the time people are left without electricity. But technology cannot replace the need to invest in the basics, such as renewing ageing cables, increasing transformer capacity and ensuring there are enough backup connections. If we want Malta and Gozo to be better protected from major outages, we need to make sure there is enough physical backup capacity to keep the electricity flowing when something goes wrong.”
Below is a technical report by local experts who have been in touch with Momentum about the problems and solutions.
“The three proposals would reduce customer outage time and improve fault management, and together with cable renewal, transformer capacity and physical redundancy make for optimal infrastructural planning”, concluded Dr Farrugia.
The July 2026 outages were characterised by multiple independent faults across medium- and low-voltage distribution networks during exceptional heat and record demand. At the same time, the August 2026 event involved an ongoing double 33 kV feeder failure affecting Gozo. FLISR would have been most valuable in July, allocating the surviving capacity more intelligently with Smart meter automated outage management verifying restoration, while distributed fibre sensing could have made its largest contribution in August by locating the second fault faster.
These management systems would reduce customer outage hours and improve fault management, but they cannot substitute for cable renewal, transformer capacity and physical redundancy. In particular, surviving another two-feeder Gozo failure requires N-2-capable transfer capacity or local emergency generation/storage; software and sensing alone cannot supply electricity through unavailable cables.
To maximise the return on investment and address the most likely causes of network failures, Enemalta should adopt a prioritised deployment strategy. Alongside the ongoing investment in cable renewal, transformer capacity and physical network redundancy, Enemalta should also improve and deploy network management and information systems to strengthen the reliability and resilience of the electricity network:
- 6 to 12 months: Malta must have completed Smart-Meter Outage Management Integration. 92% of Malta’s meters were remotely reachable by the end of 2025. A fully integrated system will automatically identify affected meters, determine impacted phases and substations, and accurately verify final restoration. This directly addresses the nested low-voltage outages seen during the recent months, where some customers remained without power for days even after primary feeders were restored.
- 12 to 24 months: Implementing autonomous Fault Location, Isolation, and Restoration on 11 kV networks to automatically locate faults and back-feed healthy sections within minutes. This system must be load-flow and temperature aware. During heatwaves, transferring load automatically without verifying the thermal headroom of alternative cables can trigger secondary failures.
- Network-wide Selective Implementation of Distributed Fibre-Optic Sensing (DFOS) to high-consequence routes, including the three 33 kV Malta-Comino-Gozo feeders, major 132 kV backbone circuits, and cables sharing confined tunnels. Targeted sensing on these critical links would pinpoint failure locations in minutes, significantly reducing excavation and repair delays.
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