Filenews 15 August 2024 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
The risk of electricity shortages today is theoretically lower than yesterday, but real. The almost permanent problem lately of the absence of sufficient production reserve, especially in the afternoon and evening hours, when photovoltaics do not produce and demand remains close to a thousand megawatts or beyond, due to the use of air conditioners, does not allow complacency.
The Cyprus Transmission System Operator (TSO) informs through its website that the current maximum available electricity production will be 1066 megawatts. This possibility -if there are no new damages- is marginally sufficient to cover the needs, provided that a) due to today's public holiday, demand will be lower than usual, since the majority of commercial and industrial premises do not operate, b) during the peak hours of noon, there is expected to be a large production from photovoltaic systems (over 500 megawatts), since weather conditions are predicted to be favorable and c) in the early evening hours, during which demand from conventional production also increases due to non-production from photovoltaics, it is estimated that demand will be below the current maximum production capacity from EAC units (1066).
And of course, provided that no damage will occur today in conventional units.
However, an unknown factor that makes things even more difficult is the connection of the electricity network to that of the occupied areas, to cover emergencies. Unofficial reports indicate that the energy finally transferred to the occupied areas in recent days, even yesterday, is more than that initially arranged, resulting in the situation becoming even more marginal and dangerous in the free areas.
Yesterday, around 6 pm, after the damage to an obsolete unit in Dhekelia, which was followed by a failure in a unit in Vasilikos (as a rule, faults are recorded in the afternoon, perhaps due to the arrhythmias caused by the general interruption of photovoltaic production and the sudden increase in the load of EAC units), the electricity supply to the occupied areas was largely interrupted in order to save production, But thousands of premises in the free areas had to be disconnected periodically (for about 40 minutes) in the free areas.
Early last night, wind farms prevented the worst (with even bigger power cuts), as strong winds in some areas increased the production of wind turbines and substantially helped the operation of the electrical system.
