‘Unacceptable’ – government reacts to east side outage and plans to fast track legislation

The Government hopes to pass the Electricity Infrastructure Damage Bill as soon as possible.

Now deemed emergency legislation, the bill has been certified as urgent and will be brought before Parliament at the next opportunity, on November 5th.

Published earlier this month, if passed it will hold contractors legally responsible and financially liable if they damage the grid, allowing the Electricity Authority to fine them up to £100,000.

Homes on the east side of the Rock were hit by a 90 minute power outage on Saturday night after AMCO workers drilled through a live power cable on Devil's Tower Road.

They were subcontracted by Situs and working at the site of the Citihome development which was in its final stages over the weekend.

The government said it was extremely concerned at what Gemma Arias Vasquez called an entirely avoidable incident.  The Minister for Public Utilities said it was unacceptable for contractors to cut through cables which are clearly marked on plans, echoing her response to the seven hour outage last month, which prompted this new legislation to be drafted.

With the bill not yet having been passed, the contractors aren't liable to be fined under it, but Ms Arias Vasquez said the government was in talks with them in order to recover costs for damages.

She said this new bill will strengthen the government's ability to hold contractors accountable and better protect Gibraltar's critical infrastructure.