Filenews 7 March 2024 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
From yesterday's meeting of CERA with a multi-person delegation of EAC, under the chairman of the Board of Directors George Petrou, it is concluded that both sides understand the great time pressure to increase energy production at the latest before the summer of 2025, in order to address a possible weakness in meeting electricity demand.
The information from yesterday's meeting converges on the conclusion that CERA and EAC agreed on an accelerated procedure for EAC to complete the necessary documents to support the application for the licensing of two gas turbines (using diesel) at the Dhekelia power station, as well as on a procedure for examining the applications of the Electricity Authority as a matter of priority by the regulatory authority.
so that EAC has the permits in its hands as soon as possible.
From the existing, unofficial, information, it is concluded that CERA understands both the need to add the two gas turbines to the Dhekelia station (with a capacity of 40 megawatts each) and the urgency of the issue, so it seems ready and willing to proceed rapidly with the examination and approval of the applications.
On the other hand, EAC has realized that the gaps identified in its applications must be filled very quickly and not in July, as its competent officials had initially informed CERA.
An application for an electricity storage system within the Dhekelia power station, with a capacity of 40 megawatts, is also pending before CERA. The application is under examination and the procedure will, as far as we understand, proceed separately from the examination of the applications for the two gas turbines.
Both the gas turbines and the storage system (batteries) will be called upon to help increase electricity production to avoid adequacy problems, but will also contribute to the balance of the system, as insistently requested by the Cyprus Transmission System Operator (TSO).
Tendering procedures
Phileleftheros reports that all competent authorities in the energy sector are concerned about the very short time available, until the summer of 2025, to increase the energy produced by Dhekelia.
The usual procedures for tendering, evaluation, award and possible submission of an appeal by unsuccessful bidders to the Tender Review Authority do not justify optimism about the Authority's ability to be ready to operate the new gas turbines before the summer of 2025, provided that in addition to the time-consuming tender process, the process of construction and installation of generators must also run.
It is clear that there was a serious delay on the part of EAC in the submission and maturation of the application for new generators in Dhekelia, although it has long been known that either in the summer of 2024 or in the summer of 2025 there was likely to be a reduced capacity to meet electricity demand, especially during 24-hour periods when photovoltaics cannot help. in the absence of electricity storage systems.
It was also known to all those responsible that the operation of the LNG terminal was almost impossible to start in 2024, therefore it is impossible to exploit the 6th unit in Vasilikos, which is expected to be delivered this summer but without natural gas will remain untapped.
Behind the scenes, there is discussion about the possibility of seeking provisions of the legislation that may allow, under certain conditions, the bypass of the open tender procedure and the option of a "direct award" procedure, to shorten the time for selecting a contractor.
However, public procurement legislation is very restrictive as regards the possibility of direct award, exceptionally, and in particular in cases where the contracting authority finds it difficult to prove the existence of extreme urgency not attributable to the contracting authority...
