Filenews 23 February 2025 - by Charalambos Zakos
The view that the electricity interconnection of Cyprus with Europe and/or the storage units will solve the issue of energy cuts in photovoltaic systems will remain an opinion and belief, since in all states that already have these infrastructures, the practice of cutting production systems from RES is often followed.
This is because energy from RES cannot be channelled and absorbed into the system in such a simple way as most people think.
On the one hand, according to experts and technocrats who spoke to "F", the penetration of green energy into the grid, even if it is connected to an electrical cable for importing and exporting energy, will not stop the cuts, since the technical characteristics of the infrastructure – internationally – do not give much choice, since priority is always the security of the network.
On the other hand, energy storage will not change much on this issue either, since photovoltaic systems are increasing and multiplying and in no case can storage units absorb all the energy produced by RES.
Why cuts are decided may sound complicated – sometimes even bizarre – but it can be explained in a simple way so that the average citizen understands what is happening.
The general principle is that there must always be production from conventional plants.
That is, even if photovoltaics produce 100% of demand, this energy cannot be absorbed by the grid, since at the same time conventional production units must be in operation. In fact, according to experts, some of these plants will have to produce at least 200 to 300 megawatts at any given time.
To make it easier to understand: In the hypothetical scenario where demand is 700 megawatts, then if 200 megawatts are subtracted from conventional plants, the grid can absorb 500 megawatts of renewables. Therefore, any energy generated over 500 megawatts from renewables will have to be discarded before entering the grid for security reasons.
Based on the above, it is concluded that, in any case, there will always be cuts in green energy. What can be regulated is the rate of rejection and not the abolition of this measure. This practice is also followed in many other countries that have both storage units and electrical interconnection.
Low cost from energy waste
Another myth about energy cuts from photovoltaic systems is that they impose high costs on consumers – owners of rooftop systems.
According to the data so far, the cuts made in 2024 translate into a loss of a few euros for households, in some cases between 10 and 20 euros per year, and in no case – as "F" was told – do the concerns and reports of losses of hundreds of euros per month due to the cuts apply.
Characteristic of the above is the concern of citizens for the installation of batteries for energy storage. But this is considered extremely unprofitable for consumers, precisely because of the very small amount they "lose" due to the cuts and the high cost of buying batteries.
Also what needs to be explained is the way net-metering works. As explained in "F", the energy produced by a household's photovoltaic system is fed into the EAC network and then these kilowatt-hours are credited to the consumer's account. When the consumer uses energy from the grid at night, when his photovoltaics are not produced, then what he gave to the grid during the hours he produced and what he consumed from the EAC network during the time when his photovoltaics were not produced is offset.
Essentially, what is done is indirect storage of energy from photovoltaic systems in the grid. Energy that would otherwise be lost in its entirety, since the demand for energy in the household was less than the production. As it is extracted, the cuts of a few hours per year from the production of residential photovoltaics can be considered negligible compared to the benefits gained by those who have installed photovoltaics.
Another aspect, which has magnified the suspicion of the problem, is the reports from citizens about extremely reduced energy production from their photovoltaic systems, which they charge in cuts.
However, the investigation of some reports and complaints showed that the reduced energy production of the systems was due to a problem they faced in their home system and not due to cuts.
