LARGE premises including hotels, businesses and ministries were yesterday spared from further regulated power cuts as electricity demand remained below availability, the Transmission System Operator (TSO) said.
TSO head Andreas Theofanous said although demand remained high, it was within the capacity available thanks to the repair of a faulty gas turbine at Moni power station which increased supply by 35 megawatts (MW) to a total 1,047 MW.
He said two generators at the Vasiliko and Moni power stations were still generating around 40MW less than usual due to the high temperatures, despite the slight drop from Tuesday.
Yesterday’s electricity demand was around 8MW higher than predicted by the TSO, Theofanous added.
Like every other day, demand steadily increased throughout the morning, hitting a maximum demand of 1,032MW at around 2.45pm.
Theofanous said the fact that given yesterday was a Wednesday and therefore only half a working day for many companies, a drop in demand was expected in the afternoon.
Referring to widespread interruptions of supply in the Nicosia and Paphos districts on Tuesday night, EAC spokesman Costas Gavrielides blamed holdups in resuming power on delays in promoting the Authority’s development plan.
“We need more transmission substations. We know exactly what we should do and when we try to construct the necessary infrastructure for some reason there are tremendous delays,” he told the Cyprus Mail.
Gavrielides said that was why there had been lengthy interruptions in supply in the New Ledra Tseri area in the Nicosia district and Stroumbi in the Paphos district.
“These areas have for some reason been so far prohibited from constructing the necessary infrastructure.”
Gavrielides explained that unplanned interruptions were due to faults on the distribution network and underground cables which could not be avoided, predicted or maintained.
“Although the fault can’t be prevented, you can have a system that within one and a half to two hours the problem is fixed using alternative means,” he said.
Meanwhile, two more unplanned interruptions to electricity supply were reported in Larnaca and Limassol yesterday.
The first cut was reported in part of Ypsonas, Kato Polemidia and Kolossi in the morning leaving people without electricity for just over two hours, according to the TSO website.
The second power cut was reported at around 3pm and affected parts of Larnaca town centre. The problem was resolved after 50 minutes.
