Malta Starts Second Sicily Cable

A drill is cutting through the coastal rock in Malta to open the underground route for a high-voltage cable before it reaches the sea (Lovin Malta). From there, the cable will run under the seabed to Sicily, giving Malta a second physical link to Europe's electricity grid and another 225 MW of import capacity (Interconnect Malta).

For Malta, this is not a prestige project. It is basic resilience. The country already draws a significant share of its electricity through one interconnector from Sicily. When that single cable fails or is taken out of service, the system has to lean harder on local gas-fired plants. A second cable is meant to stop one fault at sea from becoming a national problem.

Why two cables change the maths

Malta's electricity system is small, and small systems have little room for error. The existing Sicily link gives Enemalta access to power from the Italian grid. If that link trips or goes down for maintenance, Malta has to cover the gap at home. A second cable means the island can still import through Italy's wider system even when the first route is unavailable (Terna).

It also changes how Malta handles renewables. Solar power can flood the system at midday and fall away quickly towards evening. Wind, when it comes, is even less obedient. A larger connection to the continental grid gives operators more room to send excess power out or pull electricity in when local supply dips. In EU language, that is interconnection. In Maltese terms, it means a small island grid borrowing the flexibility of a much larger one (European Commission).

But a cable is not a power station. Malta will still need local reserves that can be switched on when imports fall, demand jumps, or renewables underperform. Spain's island systems show the limit clearly: even after building links for the Balearic and Canary Islands, Spanish planners still identified the need for hundreds of megawatts of firm power that can be called on when needed (El Periódico de la Energía). Interconnectors reduce isolation. They do not abolish it.

Why this won't cut your electricity bill

Every major energy project is sold with the suggestion that it will eventually ease bills. That is not what the evidence allows us to say here.

The price paid by households is not simply the cost of generating or importing electricity. It includes wholesale energy, network costs, taxes, levies and government subsidies (Eurostat). A stronger grid can leave retail prices unchanged if the cost of building it is recovered through tariffs, if imported electricity is not cheaper than local generation, or if government keeps prices fixed for political reasons.

Cyprus has had the same debate over the Great Sea Interconnector, the planned link to Greece. Its energy minister supports the project on security grounds, while warning that cheaper electricity should not be treated as guaranteed (Powergame). The estimated cost has nearly doubled since planning began, and Cypriot critics question whether the bill is justified even while accepting the strategic case (Kathimerini Cyprus). Malta will face the same argument, only on a smaller grid where every cost is felt quickly.

Who gains and who pays

The benefits and costs do not fall in the same place. Households and businesses gain if the system becomes more reliable and power cuts become rarer. Taxpayers carry the construction bill, which remains difficult to pin down publicly, although figures of around €300 million have circulated (Interconnect Malta, European Commission). Local gas-plant operators lose running hours as imports rise, but their plants still matter as backup when the cable or the market cannot deliver.

The project also fits the EU's wider pressure for more cross-border electricity links. Several member states are expected to miss the bloc's 15% interconnection target, meaning the share of a country's generation capacity that can flow across borders, and the Commission has been pushing peripheral systems to connect more firmly to the continental grid (European Commission).

The drilling now under way is therefore best understood as insurance. It makes Malta's electricity supply harder to disrupt. It does not, by itself, make electricity cheaper.