Filenews 22 April 2022 - by Vassos Vassiliou
It is possible that in the years 2023 and 2024 Cyprus will not have sufficient electricity, something that will affect various sectors of the economy and especially the tourism industry, which hopes to fully recover after the pandemic crisis and the war in Ukraine that left several hotels and tourist accommodations closed.
The adequacy problem may be created due to the delay, by one year, of the construction and operation of the Combined Cycle Gas Turbine Unit No. 6 at the Vasilikos Power Station with a capacity of 160MW. The plant was scheduled to be operational in April 2023 but will hopefully be operational in June 2024.
In response to a question from "F", EAC spokeswoman Christina Papadopoulou said that the adequacy of electricity for the year 2023 is a matter that depends on various factors. He acknowledged that there will indeed be a delay in the completion of "Unit 6", compared to the initial plan, which did not depend on the EAC. He also said that by the end of 2022, the Akrotiri Authority's photovoltaic project with a capacity of 12 MW will be completed.
Regarding the year 2024, he noted that adequacy will also depend on various factors such as the demand observed. It will also depend on the completion or not, of renewable energy projects and in particular on the installation or not, of photovoltaic systems.
According to Mrs Papadopoulou, another factor that will play a role is the timely installation of "Unit 6". "We expect it to be operational before the summer season of 2024," he added. The last factor, which does not depend on the EAC, is the operation of power plants by independent producers.
What happened to Unit 6
Regarding what happened with the "Unit 6" in Vassilikos, whose construction was delayed, the Minister of Energy, Natasa Pilidou, in response to a question by MP Stavros Papadouris, says that the tender was announced on 19/6/2020, with the last date of submission being 18/9/2020. He also explains that "the first stage of the evaluation of the tenders, which concerned the conditions of participation and the technical evaluation, was carried out twice, since one of the bidders who did not qualify for the second stage of evaluation, appealed as many times to the Tenders Review Authority. The final award of the contract was made on 26/1/2022 and the contract was signed on 16/2/2022 with an expected date of completion of the project on April 30, 2024.
As already written above, a company whose pronunciation was rejected and excluded on the grounds that it did not meet aspects of the technical specifications, appealed before the Tender Review Authority, claiming that EAC not sign a contract for the construction of the unit with the company selected by the Authority.
It also measured the interest of the company
EAC made agonizing efforts to convince the ReviewIng Authority that its decision to exclude (at the stage of the technical evaluation) the company that appealed to it was the right one. The EAC informed the ReviewIng Authority that the duration of the contract is 27 months from the date of its commencement and "any delay will result in the entire timetable of the project not being feasible, so problems will arise in the adequacy of electricity generation". The Electricity Authority had also cited a letter from the Regulatory Authority for Energy (to the Authority) dated 16/4/2021, in which it (CERA) found a significant delay in the award of the tender. Also, CERA noted "the very serious problems of adequacy of the electrical system for 2023" and asked the EAC to "expedite the procedures so that the start of commercial operation of the plant is according to an approved schedule or even earlier than February 2023".
The Reviewing Authority in its decision stated the following: "After taking into account the possible consequences for all interests as well as the public interest, which includes the legality of the tender which minimizes the risk of compensation payments and increases the confidence of the citizen and the economic operators in the administration, we unanimously decide that the granting of interim measures is justified for the suspension of the award procedure or the execution of an act or decision of the Contracting Authority or signing the contract'.
The Tender Review Authority had observed in its decision that "the risks to which the Contracting Authority (EAC) had referred, in combination with what was put before it, it seems that tomorrow the contract was signed are not neutralized, since the execution period of the project is 27 months and the project according to the timetables should be completed in February 2023".
The company that appealed before the Review Authority had argued, among other things, that "failure to grant interim measures (which prevented the EAC from proceeding) would be directed against its interests since it may be harmed, especially by awarding the tender to another economic operator".
