Malta Starts Second Sicily Power Cable

A drill is now working its way through the coastal rock in Malta, opening the underground route that will carry a high-voltage cable out to sea (Lovin Malta). From there, the line will run beneath the water to Sicily, giving Malta a second physical link to Europe's electricity grid and adding 225 MW of import capacity (Interconnect Malta).

For an island state, this is the unglamorous part of energy security: not a new slogan, but a second cable. Malta already draws much of its imported electricity through one link with Sicily. The new one is being built so a single fault, maintenance shutdown or accident does not leave the country exposed.

Why two cables change the maths

Malta's existing interconnector brings electricity in from Sicily. When it trips or has to be taken offline, the system leans back on domestic gas-fired generation. A second cable changes that calculation. It means Malta can still pull power from Italy's wider grid even if the first link is unavailable (Terna).

It also matters for renewables. Small grids have less room for error when solar and wind output move sharply: too much electricity in the middle of a sunny day, too little when demand rises later on. With only one route into a larger system, operators have limited ways to export surplus power or bring in extra supply quickly. A larger connection to the continental grid gives Malta more flexibility, because Italian and European operators can help balance what Malta's system cannot absorb on its own (European Commission).

But cables are not a substitute for domestic backup. Spain's island systems show the limit. Even after interconnections were built for the Balearic and Canary Islands, Spanish planners still saw a need for hundreds of megawatts of firm power, meaning capacity that can be switched on when imports or renewables fall short (El Periódico de la Energía). Interconnectors reduce isolation. They do not make islands mainland systems.

Why this won't cut your electricity bill

Every large energy project arrives with a hint that bills might fall. The case here is weaker than that.

What households pay for electricity is not just the cost of generating power. It also includes network charges, taxes, levies and whatever subsidy or price-management system the government has chosen (Eurostat). A stronger grid can leave retail prices more or less where they are if the cable's cost is recovered through tariffs, if imported electricity is no cheaper than local gas generation, or if the government keeps prices as a political decision.

Cyprus is already having this argument. Its energy minister supports the Great Sea Interconnector to Greece on security grounds, while warning that cheaper electricity should not be treated as a certainty (Powergame). The estimated cost of that project has almost doubled since planning began, and critics in Cyprus question whether the bill can be justified even if the strategic case is accepted (Kathimerini Cyprus). Malta will face much the same test.

Who gains and who pays

The benefits and costs do not land in the same place. Maltese households and businesses gain if the system becomes more reliable and outages become less likely. Taxpayers carry the construction risk, with the final bill still difficult to establish publicly, though figures of about €300 million have circulated (Interconnect Malta, European Commission). Domestic gas plants lose running hours as imports rise, but keep their value as emergency capacity.

The project also sits inside a broader EU push to knit peripheral electricity systems into the continental grid. Several member states are expected to miss the bloc's 15% interconnection target, which measures how much of a country's generation capacity can flow across borders. The Commission has been pressing more isolated systems to build real physical links, not just energy strategies on paper (European Commission).

The drilling in Malta is, in the end, an insurance policy. It makes the island's power supply harder to knock out. It does not guarantee it will be cheaper.