THE ELECTRICITY Authority (EAC) yesterday said it favoured natural gas as an alternative to oil for running its power stations, flatly denying reports of a set-to with the government over the issue.
Reports yesterday suggested that the Commerce Ministry’s energy section was at loggerheads with the EAC because the semi-government utility was refusing to consider the ‘green’ alternative of natural gas for its new power station at Vassiliko.
Ministry sources yesterday confirmed the reports, saying the EAC was insisting on sticking to ‘dirty’ oil. “They are one thousand per cent wrong, it is scandalous,” a Ministry source told the Cyprus Mail. The ministry official said that continuing to use oil to fire power stations would mean Cyprus would remain out of line with EU pollution control regulations.
But the EAC issued a statement yesterday afternoon insisting there was no disagreement with the government over the issue, and that the utility was ready to adopt natural gas as soon as feasible.
“There is total agreement between the Commerce Ministry and the Electricity Authority about the common desire to bring natural gas to Cyprus,” the EAC statement said. “Undoubtedly, natural gas is for many reasons, environmental ones in particular, a fuel that the authority favours.”
The EAC said it had long been trying to see how natural gas could be brought to the island and had even examined the possibility of transferring the fuel in an undersea pipeline.
The authority added that its relationship with the government was “excellent”.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
