Facing questions and concern, Govt continues ‘obtaining all facts’ after power cut

The Gibraltar Government said on Thursday that it is “currently obtaining all of the facts” around the incident on Tuesday that left Gibraltar without power for seven hours.

The seven-hour power cut was caused when a contractor carrying out exploratory work on the site of a proposed £1.8bn data centre cut through three main power cables linking the North Mole power station to the grid.

As business organisations explore the possibility of a collective claim for compensation for lost trade and damaged equipment, questions are being asked as to how the incident occurred and what can be done to prevent similar occurrences in future.

The contractor, SDE Ltd, was working for Pelagos Data Centre Ltd, which announced plans for the data centre earlier this month but has yet to file planning applications for the project and obtain approval.

At the time of the incident, SDE Ltd did not have a valid business licence in place, according to the Office of Fair Trading. It has since renewed the licence, which is for the provision of marine services.

The contractor had been provided with detailed plans of the location of buried cables, according to the Gibraltar Electricity Authority.

Asked what permissions were in place allowing SDE Ltd to conduct the work, and why those permissions had been granted to a company without a business licence, the Gibraltar Government said it was still investigating.

“The Government is currently obtaining all of the facts,” a spokesperson for No.6 Convent Place said.

According to the Government, developers do not need planning permission to conduct exploratory work on a potential development site.

Any party requiring subsoil information would follow a “long-established utility services’ clearance process” to obtain information on what is in the ground before any works are carried out.

They would also need to obtain a permit from the Highways Department should any traffic management arrangements affecting the public highway be required.

“The carrying out of site investigations to, for example, determine subsoil conditions by either the digging of trial pits or boreholes does not require planning permission,” the spokesperson said.

“It is customary for designers to gather information to assess the viability of a project or start developing concept/outline designs before a project is submitted for planning approval.”

On Wednesday, Pelagos said it was carrying out its own internal investigation into the incident and would provide a report to the GEA and the Government, and would cooperate with both.

It said too that SDE Ltd and the company it had employed to carry out the exploratory work would have no further involvement in the data centre project.

The incident drew criticism from the GSD, which described it as a serious failure of oversight that raised concerns about how such works were authorised.

The Opposition also criticised the lack of transparency on the day of the incident, saying the public was not informed that the works were carried out unlawfully.

It said this left citizens with “vague statements and deflections” at a time when clarity was needed.

Opposition MP Craig Sacarello said the issue went beyond the blackout itself and was a matter of “governance and integrity”.

The GSD has also pressed for answers on how the works were authorised and who issued the business licence after the incident.