Filenews 12 May 2024 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
Without reliable information yet to the Ministry of Energy and other state structures on the time when it is possible to complete the natural gas dehydration terminal in Vasilikos as well as the time of possible start of the use of the new fuel in electricity production, the co-competent bodies are looking for ways to revise the design for the construction of the natural gas transmission system at power stations.
As Phileleftheros has informed many times in the recent past, DEFA under previous administrations has been seriously slow to promote the procedures for selecting a designer for the preparation of a ten-year plan for the natural gas supply-transmission system, with the result that today not only is there no contractor to carry out the study, but there are also no prospects that this pending issue will be solved soon.
The tender belatedly launched by DEFA was successfully challenged by the Tender Review Authority, which issued annulment decisions. Today, the tender is pending before the Administrative Court, where one of the bidders appealed, challenging an earlier decision of the Reviewing Authority. There is no reliable forecast on the horizon either for the timing of the Court's judgment, or for the content of the judgment and the developments it will initiate.
We remind you that the designer selected by DEFA will not construct the pipelines for the transport of natural gas from the LNG regasification terminal. It will prepare a study on the transmission system in general, but also on the pipelines connecting the terminal to power stations, at this stage of EAC and private PEC. It will then also prepare tender terms for construction projects.
With the obvious long delay foreseen for the implementation of these plans, we are informed that the Ministry of Energy and DEFA are now seriously discussing the possibility of following an alternative option, in order to save time on the construction of pipelines to the EAC station and to the PEC station.
"To do them themselves"
What has been discussed is the possibility that the construction of the two pipelines will be done by the electricity producers themselves. In the case of EAC, the distance of its existing gas reception and transmission system within its Vasilikos station is very small and it is estimated that the Authority could easily and quickly prepare the infrastructure itself.
The distance of the LNG terminal from PEC's under construction terminal is longer but not prohibitive for the company's ability to build the pipeline to facilitate and accelerate the transportation of natural gas to its generators, provided that the terminal is delivered at some point (in '25 or '26, perhaps!) by China's CPP.
However, the so-called plan b for natural gas pipelines stumbles on the procedures to be followed by CERA, DEFA and EAC, on the basis of the harmonizing legislation in force. "F" reports that it is legally impermissible and operationally unsafe to assign EAC and a private company to construct natural gas transmission pipelines without prior study – and permission from CERA – to ensure compliance with safety standards and compliance with basic principles of competition, on the basis of public procurement laws.
Smaller project
We are informed that what will be examined in the coming period is the option of releasing the natural gas pipelines concerning EAC and PEC from the wider ten-year project for the gas transmission system in mass consumption areas in Cyprus, in order to request from DEFA and make (obviously through an accelerated tender) a smaller study and to announce a tender for the contractor who will implement the new targeted design. The idea of electricity producers building the pipes themselves probably won't go ahead.
Final decisions are pending.
