HM Government of Gibraltar can confirm that the power outage experienced earlier today was caused by an interruption to the gas supply at the North Mole Power Station.

At the time of the incident, three engines were running. Two of these engines were operating on gas and one was operating in dual-fuel mode. The interruption to the gas supply affected the operation of the engines and resulted in a loss of generation, which led to the power outage.

The Battery Energy Storage System responded as designed. However, the sudden loss of generation exceeded the level of power that the BESS was able to absorb and stabilise at that moment. The system is capable of managing up to 14MW of power (the equivalent power needed if one engine failed), but the incident resulted in a loss beyond that capacity, meaning that the BESS was unable to prevent the interruption to supply.

The Minister with responsibility for the Gibraltar Electricity Authority immediately attended the North Mole Power Station following the outage. As a result, she was unable to attend the King’s Birthday Parade, remaining instead at the power station to oversee the recovery operation on behalf of the people of Gibraltar.

The Gibraltar Electricity Authority responded immediately and is working to restore supply as quickly and safely as possible.

The Government and the GEA are reviewing the circumstances surrounding the interruption to the gas supply to establish the precise cause and to ensure that any necessary follow-up action is taken.

The Gibraltar Electricity Authority apologises to members of the public and businesses for the inconvenience caused and thanks the GEA teams for their swift response.