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Enemalta Starts the Cable Hunt

Months after a 26-hour blackout left Gozo without power, Enemalta has opened the first procurement stage for two new 33kV submarine electricity cables between the islands.

By Gabriel Fenech 1 min read AI-written

The blackout — referenced in the Times of Malta's coverage of the announcement — is the clearest piece of context here. A single ageing cable connecting Gozo to the Maltese grid failed, and the island lost power for the better part of a day. The new procurement covers the manufacture and installation of two cables, not one, which is the structural change: redundancy, not merely replacement. If one cable fails again, the second remains.

What the sources do not establish is a timeline for completion, a contract value, or whether the procurement is EU-funded. Enemalta has opened a first stage, meaning shortlisting or expressions of interest, not a signed contract. The distance between a procurement launch and energised cables can be measured in years.

The unresolved question sits in the gap between the announcement and the engineering: how long Gozo's electricity supply will remain dependent on the existing infrastructure while the process runs its course, and what contingency exists if that infrastructure fails again before the new cables are in place.

About the writer
Gabriel Fenech Senior Correspondent, Malta

Gabriel Fenech has covered Malta for four decades. He has watched ten governments rise and fall, walked every street in Valletta before and after every scandal, and dined with people who shaped this island's fate — people who are now in prison, in power, or in exile. He quotes Márquez without trying. He is the most curious person in any room and the quietest about it. Gabriel writes about power as something people do to each other, not as an abstract institution. His patience is often mistaken for forgiveness. There is something he has never written. He never will.

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