Filenews 15 June 2024
With its announcement yesterday, ADMIE, the operator of the electricity interconnection between Cyprus and Crete, informs about developments around its promotion but also indirectly responds to the concerns recently expressed by the Cyprus Electricity Market Association about the consequences of the interconnection for consumers and investments by energy companies.
In the field of informing the productive bodies of Cyprus, the management of IPTO had on 13/6, a detailed discussion with the Cyprus Employers & Industrialists Federation (OEB) on the benefits and technical characteristics of the project. IPTO points out that SAE also participated in the discussion.
According to the promoter, the integration of Cyprus, through interconnection, into the single electricity market will inevitably lead to convergence of Cyprus' electricity prices with those of the rest of Europe, to the benefit of private and corporate consumers. ADMIE estimates the benefit for consumers in Cyprus with consumption of 5,000 KWh (kilowatt hours) per year at €400 per year.
He also argues that through the interconnected system, the produced RES energy in Cyprus will find an outlet to demand, which gives an advantage to RES producers (mainly PV) in Cyprus who produce cheaper compared to Eastern and Northern Europe (but sell more expensively today). This means that, once Cyprus is interconnected, the large RES production of its plants (mainly PV) that will have to be installed on the island to achieve very high RES penetration targets, turns Cyprus into an export country for excess RES production.
Responding, obviously, to the concerns of producers in Cyprus about what will happen to their investments after the operation of the interconnection, ADMIE states the following: "Given that natural gas is a transitional fuel for Cyprus in Europe's common decarbonization path until 2050, in line with the country's commitments towards the European Green Deal, the PV production units together with the rest of the conventional fuel units, when the penetration of RES will have increased significantly, will operate on the basis of backup or supplementary operation through a power mechanism for redundancy – flexibility".
We remind you that SAE (Electricity Market Association, part of OEB) had stated in its own recent announcement that the backup-supplementary operation of Cypriot power plants will bring additional costs to consumers.
They are looking for the route
ADMIE also informed that the contractor of the Nexans cable sections received the "green" light from the Marine Exploration Licensing Committee (HELEX) in order to start the seabed surveys. The vessel on behalf of the French company will immediately begin mapping the seabed, in order to select the optimal route for the submarine cable connecting Cyprus with Crete.
- We remind you that the Government has made it clear to ADMIE that its final decision whether or not to participate in the share capital of the Great Sea Interconnector with €100 million will be received only after the submission by him of the final cost-benefit study for the project and after the study has been evaluated by an international firm.
