Malta posts EU’s largest household electricity-use increase

Economist Philip von Brockdorff linked Malta’s rise to population growth, additional apartments, tourism and short lets, wider appliance ownership and the spread of electric cooking and air conditioning. Higher real household income also enabled more consumption. He said stable subsidised prices, unlike increases faced in many other European countries, reduced the incentive to cut use and benefited residents as well as temporary visitors. Von Brockdorff warned that the policy carries substantial public-finance and environmental costs because subsidies run into millions of euros while electricity generation remains partly dependent on fossil fuels.