Filenews 5 June 2025 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
In Cyprus, the... children rarely cook before they go hungry and this is confirmed again this summer, with those responsible for ensuring electricity adequacy in a period of high demand and limited production rushing to literally prevent the final power cuts from thousands of households, due to a deficit in production.
Already, the Cyprus Electricity Regulatory Authority (CERA), the competent authority for adequacy, has belatedly declared an alarm, as all the data and forecasts show that the coverage of demand (and) this summer is possible to be achieved "marginally" (but without the necessary reserve provided for by laws and regulations), but we will not avoid the disconnection of households and businesses from the grid if we lack production in hours Without sunshine, some serious damages will be added. Something not at all improbable.
In order to create, even the last, a satisfactory cold reserve of electricity at the disposal of the Cyprus Transmission System Operator (TSO) and the EAC, CERA urgently called on the Distribution System Operator (EAC) to deploy technical crews to register private generators that could be made available to the Transmission Operator, in order to cover emergency electricity consumption needs. Something similar had been successfully done in 2011, after the tragedy in Mari.
Such needs are likely to occur after 6 p.m. in the coming days and weeks, as a significant increase in temperature and consequently in electricity demand is expected, at times when photovoltaic parks and home photovoltaics will not participate, in the absence of storage, in covering the needs. This phenomenon also occurred last summer, but did not lead to significant obstacles to uninterrupted electricity supply. But it was also presented last January and February, when between 6 and 7 p.m. the great demand was literally covered by a hair and only by luck - and a lot of risk for serious adventures - we avoided the worst.
Are there generators available
The information of the Liberal states that the EAC crews have successfully completed the first cycle of investigation of the available cold reserve from private generators.
Dozens of generators have been recorded in large enterprises, malls, hotels, hospitals and airports, with a potential capacity of between one and 1.5 megawatts each, which their owners or managers are willing to make available for emergency use when requested by CERA or EAC. Initially, CERA had requested the voluntary "mobilization" of private generators with a total capacity of at least 40 megawatts, as it is duly estimated that the "hole" in production, in relation to the expected demand on summer afternoons, will be about 30 megawatts, in case of failures.
We are informed that the generators deemed available by EAC have a total capacity of more than 40 megawatts.
What remains to be done urgently in the next 24 hours is to organize the process of utilizing these generators in case of need, to sign contracts that will bind both sides and, of course, to agree on the manner and amount of compensation of the owners of the generators and ultimately the cost of... of the last production shelter.
Contacts between CERA and EAC are now taking place on an almost daily basis, as everyone has finally realized that there is no more time to lose.
The Meteorological Service predicts that the temperature is approaching the first 40 and the weather conditions in recent days have already led consumers to use air conditioners. Consumption has already reached or exceeded (early in the evening) on an almost daily basis 700 megawatts, while some EAC units are undergoing maintenance to withstand the tests of July and August. Due to maintenance, these days the maximum available electricity production from the EAC has been reduced to 920-930 megawatts.
Warned
It should be noted that from 2023 and 2024, technocrats in the energy sector warned that there was a visible risk of not being able to meet electricity demand in the summer of 2024, 2025 and even worse in 2026, if the process of importing natural gas was not completed. The lack of natural gas keeps the -brand-new- 6th unit of the EAC in Vassiliko inactive, 160 megawatts, which cost about 200 million euros. The recovery of which has not yet begun by the EAC, precisely because it was not put into operation.
The units of the private PEC in Vassiliko (260 megawatts) cannot be utilized, even if their installation is completed quickly. However, even if these units will soon be able to operate with the advent of natural gas, the problems of adequate production will not disappear in 2026 or 2027, since in order for the EAC and PEC units in Vassiliko to be able to exploit natural gas, they will have to go through several months of trials, during which they will have to be inactivated...
Hopes that EAC's new generators in Dhekelia (about 80 megawatts) could help increase production have been dashed, as it is impossible for them to be available next summer, even if the bids are awarded tomorrow. Maybe in the summer of 2027.
