Speaking in Parliament on Friday, Branco says the Ministry of Public Works and state-owned electricity company, Electricity of Timor-Leste (EDTL), must better coordinate maintenance of power infrastructure to end on-going daily blackouts.

He argued that the current approach of responding to broken infrastructure rather than routine maintenance was eroding chance to keep the power system in good working order.  

Branco says while the actions EDTL has taken to try and fix cables provides some short-term benefit, the approach is “costly” and not sustainable over the longer term.

"The big problem that we are experiencing is that there is no maintenance routinely carried out by EDTL,” Branco says.

“They wait until everything is damaged to conduct repairs. This has been the experience for 12 years. The system has never had regular maintenance, so they spend big amounts on repairs.”

He also questioned why blackouts were occurring when the government had promised that its new generator would provide regular power supply. 

EDTL is a government owned, designated to control and be in charge of the national power grid, according to its website. 

Access to electrivity for households in Timor-Leste has doubled since 2009, with around 80 per cent of houses now connected to the grid, according to World Bank figures.