Filenews 23 July 2025 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
Last week, even before the heat wave showed its teeth, the maximum electricity production capacity from EAC generators was over 1200 megawatts (the nominal - and unattainable - maximum capacity is 1480), a positive consequence of the timely completion of the maintenance, so that the production capacity is available for the increased needs of July and August.
Since Monday, however, when the temperature climbed to over 40 degrees, some failures at the Vassilikos and Dhekelia stations have reduced the maximum production capacity to 1100 megawatts, causing concern to CERA, the Transport Operator, EAC and the Ministry of Energy.
Protection from damage is rather impossible in times when the production units are used to the maximum, especially when we are talking about the aged and obsolete steam power plants of Dhekelia, which should have been replaced years ago.
Given the forecasts for maintaining high temperatures in the coming days (for tomorrow, Thursday, in fact, there is a forecast for 44 degrees), officials are worried that the slightest thing going wrong will be a problem in the smooth coverage of electricity demand. Which will increase every day.
As Filenews wrote yesterday, the Transmission Operator asked EAC to do everything possible so that tomorrow, Thursday, an additional unit in Dhekelia, with a capacity of 60 megawatts, will be made available to the Operator, from those that are decommissioned. In order for this generator to have a substantial contribution, however, it will be necessary to avoid any new damage to another unit or for the efforts for the full performance of unit 4 - combined cycle - in Vassiliko to bear fruit. Something that seemed possible yesterday afternoon.
As we have written several times, the demand at noon is close to 1200 megawatts, but its coverage is comfortably ensured for the time being, as photovoltaic parks and in some cases wind farms contribute to this with about 600 megawatts.
The hardships are caused after 7 p.m., when the production from photovoltaics decreases (from 3 p.m. onwards) and gradually zeros and only the EAC units paddle. Yesterday at 8 p.m., it was estimated that the maximum demand would be 980 megawatts, while the production capacity was 1120 megawatts. However, the maximum demand at 8 pm was 1,015 megawatts, but the system was fortunate to have a production of around 65 megawatts from the wind turbines of the wind farms. That is, although there seems to be adequacy, in reality we are far from such a situation, since in the event of a failure in a large unit - even a small one - problems in the electricity supply will be inevitable.
Given that three days preceded by very high temperatures, the needs for the cooling of buildings and the relief of the population are increasing day by day, therefore the Operator's concerns for tomorrow are considered well-founded. Much will depend on EAC's efforts to increase the maximum production capacity from its units, in the hope that the system will take a breather over the weekend, due to the normal reduction in consumption.
Yesterday, the maximum consumption was recorded at 2.30 p.m., with 1,188 megawatts, which is the highest this year. Of this demand, 591 megawatts came from renewable sources.
