Filenews 21 September 2024 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
After months of consultations, which at times threatened to disrupt relations between the governments of Cyprus and Greece, the interstate agreement on electricity interconnection was concluded last night.
Fileleftheros reports that the agreement was signed by Energy Ministers George Papanastasiou and Theodoros Skylakakis and has been notified to the stakeholders and competent authorities of the two states.
The agreement was signed a few hours after CERA's decision yesterday to change the regulatory framework that had been formed on July 2, '24, to change the regulatory framework that was in force from January 2023 to meet the requirements of the interconnection operator in terms of finding investors.
In the final text of the agreement, we are informed that extensive reference is made to the content of CERA's decision, but also to the remaining decisions that CERA and RAAEY have to take to amend the cross-border cost allocation (CBCA). In particular, regulators are bound by the agreement to reset at 50-50 the assumption of costs by consumers in Cyprus and Greece, in case the project is cancelled by an external factor or incident, without the responsibility of the promoter. The current breakdown is 63 for Cyprus and 37 for Greece.
The amendment to the CBCA will be made after legislation is passed by the Greek Parliament, according to which the additional -potential- costs for consumers in Greece (13%) will be financed by the Greek State and not directly by electricity consumers.
The request submitted by the Cypriot side for a 50-50 split of the potentially higher cost of the project, over the budgeted €1.94 billion, was not accepted by the Greek side and is not included in the agreement.
Regarding Cyprus' participation in the shareholding structure of the Great Sea Interconnector, with €100 million. Yesterday's agreement states that the final investment decision will be taken following the due diligence study to be launched by the Cypriot government.
