The Minister for Utilities, the Hon Gemma Arias-Vasquez, has today confirmed that the Government has reached agreement with representatives of the project concerned in relation to the power outage of Tuesday 16th September 2025.

The incident arose when works at Neil Pinero Road resulted in damage to high-voltage cables, causing a Gibraltar-wide loss of power for several hours.

Following a meeting with Minister Arias-Vasquez, SDE Limited have agreed to pay £130,900.24 to the Government. This figure reflects the costs incurred by the Gibraltar Electricity Authority in responding to the incident, including emergency labour, repairs and materials, and associated legal costs. The figure also includes costs incurred by the Housing Department for the damages to lifts at different housing estates. This agreement has been made without admission of liability on the part of SDE Limited.

In parallel, the Government has already received a draft of new legislation which Minister Arias-Vasquez will shortly bring before Parliament. This Bill will create the offence of damaging electrical infrastructure and provide for the imposition of substantial financial penalties when such infrastructure is damaged. The legislation is expected to be published this week.

Additionally, HMGoG will begin a review of the site clearance regime to ensure the highest possible standards of safety and accountability in works taking place in areas where critical public infrastructure is present.

The Minister with responsibility for Public Utilities, the Hon Gemma Arias-Vasquez, said:

“The incident was unacceptable and caused serious disruption to our community. I know how difficult it was for families and businesses to be left without power for so many hours and while this payment of £130,900.24 does not undo the impact, it ensures that the costs of the Gibraltar Electricity Authority’s response will not be borne by the taxpayer.

I welcome this payment and I will proceed, at speed, to introduce new legislation to make damaging electrical infrastructure an offence carrying significant financial penalties. Alongside this, the Government will review the site clearance regime to strengthen safeguards around critical infrastructure. These steps are essential to ensure accountability and to protect Gibraltar from future disruption. I am sure that the people of Gibraltar expect no less.”

ENDS