Ah, now we can put Il-Guy’s daughter-in-law’s “electricity hub” plea in its proper perspective
Il-Guy, Malta’s new EU Commissioner (on right), seen here with a famous Labour prime minister.
Miriam Dalli, Il-Guy’s daughter-in-law, now a Labour member of the European Parliament (yes, this is a recent photograph)
Konrad Mizzi, the energy minister and Miriam Dalli’s boss until she took up her seat in the European Parliament. She was on the full-time payroll at Mizzi’s office as a ‘consultant’.
Il-Guy’s daughter-in-law takes Konrad Mizzi’s begging-bowl to the European Parliament.
Miriam Dalli’s out-of-left-field plea in the European Parliament a few days ago, for Malta to become a European energy hub, is our first intimation that Konrad Mizzi, her boss until last May, intends to commit the government to buying more electricity than Malta needs, on an indefinite basis.
There is no other way Shanghai Electric is going to sign on that dotted line otherwise, or Electrogas pull its finger out and get started when it hasn’t even cobbled the consortium together properly. Neither of those two is going to put its money in unless it has a guarantee that Enemalta will buy up its entire capacity.
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What is the real reason behind this Chinese investment?
They want to export electricity to mainland Europe through the interconnector. That was always the plan.
Marsxlokk will heal from cancer as soon as we turn everything to LNG which will become dearer than oil.
corruption
“There is no other way Shanghai Electric is going to sign on that dotted line otherwise, or Electrogas pull its finger out and get started when it hasn’t even cobbled the consortium together properly. Neither of those two is going to put its money in unless it has a guarantee that Enemalta will buy up its entire capacity.”
Electrogas is supposed to have signed some kind of contract with the government back in May. That contract has remained a state secret. I would imagine that it includes a clear commitment from Enemalta to buy all of Electrogas’s 200MW capacity.
But then we first have to assume that the people who lied about the power station timeframes wouldn’t also lie about the contract.
The irony, ciccio, when eventually we end up buying its full capacity, the only way to utilise all that energy is by selling electricity on odd night hours at a favourable price, something that Joseph Muscat always ridiculed.
Contract, Memorandum of Understanding aren’t these things the same? What’s in a name?
What ever China is planning to do here it needs a efficient, reliable and cost effective energy source.
I can’t imagine manufacturing but maybe assembly.
Singapore was mentioned recently but Muscat compared Malta to Dubai. I would go with some sort of Free zone distributing every Chinese product around Europe. At the same time a look out post right bang in the middle of the Mediterranean.
The power station – and not its output – is what China needs and wants. It means it can yank Malta’s chain for at least the next two decades.That’s already happening and the power station hasn’t even been built yet.
Electricity hub?
I’d say we’re back to the politics of “hub ghaziz.”
Let’s also put her stated interests in perspective:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/124970/Miriam_DALLI_home.html;jsessionid=75DC9E1932DCACD1DC1E152212480EA4.node2
If one analyses ALL of Joseph Muscat’s interests and interventions during his time as EP, it is clear that they were ALL linked to what is happening today.
His interventions were 6 years in advance of his action, made possible by his election to power.
I don’t see China in her interests, but I do see a continuance of Joseph Muscat’s Azerbaijan and Georgia interests.
Not to mention her intervention already logged, of the interest in “direct talks” talking place between the Ukraine and Russia.
Let’s see when Nair was last mentioned in that capacity?
All fitting in nicely with the “delegation for relations with Maghreb countries.”
Alltogether very convenient.
I have a feeling that when the Chinese agreed to buy the BWSC plant, they hadn’t been told about the government’s commitment to buy all the electricity from Electrogas; they found out later.
It is interesting to note that the agreement with Shangai Electric has, officially, nothing to do with the Electrogas project. They are two separate agreements. So, if there are issues with the Chinese, why has the Electrogas project be put on hold?
And who decided that the BWSC plant would not switch to diesel but continue to burn Heavy Fuel Oil? Was it a condition the Chinese imposed?
If the government agrees to buy all the electricity produced by Electrogas and all that produced by the BWSC, it will have a great deal of surplus energy on its hands. It could try to sell it to Europe, hence Miriam Dalli’s reference to a “hub”, though this would not make Malta a hub at all; that is just a buzz-word Labour people like using.
The problem for the government is that electricity generation in Europe is much cheaper than in Malta, so selling surplus energy is not going to be easy.
Muscat seems to want to field an energy hub model based on the principles of mass production and mass consumption pioneered by Ford. (After all he studied Ford for his PhD thesis.)
By producing and buying up more electricity than we need, Muscat will reduce electricity bills as he promised. However, his lack of commercial experience/acumen is clear: Muscat seems to believe that as long as Malta offers a low per unit cost it is enough to capture a profitable market share in Europe.
The PM does not realise that the Chinese are asking him for guarantees because they know that that price competition is not enough and the energy hub concept for Malta is nothing more than a fairy tale.
Indeed, the project will fail because we do not have unfettered access to a centrally located large scale distribution system and to funds to market the product on the large scale needed to make mass production of electricity viable. Malta can never achieve the complete benefits of large scale operations. The Chinese know it.
The more obvious results are (a) failure, (b) excess electricity being funded through government subsidies, (c) a larger and growing deficit, (d) falling demand as more businesses close down because no one is paying attention to attracting and facilitating investment, and (e) further deflation. Eventually, taxation will enter the equation and we’ll be doubly and royally cheated.
The only hub Malta will be known for is a hub for underworld criminal bosses , pervs, and crooked businessmen wanted all over the civilized wrorld.
The surplus electricity we will have to buy can easily be dealt with if we are creative enough. Just a few ideas:
Ban the importation of energy saving lamps and set up a factory to manufacture hand made incandescent lamps instead.
Stop the importation of LPG – after all why use dangerous gas for heating and cooking when we can use clean electricity?
Air-condition the Ta Qali stadium 24/7: that will be killing two birds with one stone because it will also help make us the Dubai of the Med, in line with Joseph’s plans.
Heat the bays and beaches so that people can swim all year round.
Buy back photovoltaic panels and solar water heaters and sell them on the second-hand market.
How would Malta’s carbon footprint be affected if Malta were to become an energy hub to serve other countries?