Malta’s second electricity interconnector with Sicily has reached a new construction milestone, with major components now delivered and installation work under way on both sides of the cable route.

The auto transformer and shunt reactors, both extremely large and heavy pieces of equipment, have arrived at their respective sites. In Sicily, a shunt reactor was unloaded at Pozzallo Port before being transported overland to the interconnector site in Ragusa. In Malta, workers unloaded a second shunt reactor and moved the auto transformer to the project site. The operation required specialist trucks, cranes, engineers and coordination with transport authorities on both sides. Installation is continuing.

The progress was reported on Instagram by maltadaily.mt on 3rd August 2026. The interconnector runs 122 kilometres between Magħtab in Malta and Ragusa in Sicily, at a total project cost of 300 million euros, of which 261 million euros comes from European Union funding.

The project carries real strategic weight for Malta. Once complete, the second interconnector is expected to double the island’s connection to the European electricity grid, making it considerably easier to integrate renewable sources such as wind and solar power into the national supply. It is also projected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 13.5 million tonnes over time.

Malta already has one operational interconnector with Sicily, but the second link is designed to significantly strengthen energy security and grid resilience for an island nation that remains particularly exposed to supply disruption. The scale of the equipment now being installed reflects the complexity of a project that crosses more than a hundred kilometres of seabed while tying into existing grid infrastructure on both the Maltese and Italian sides.

With the hardware on site and installation progressing, the project appears to be advancing steadily toward completion, though no formal completion date was given in the reported update.