Racing to clean up power plant

EXPERTS are working feverishly to prep installations at the out-of-commission Vasilikos plant so that the some 100,000 tonnes of fuel sitting idle there can be transferred to the two other functioning power stations.

The Vasilikos facility went offline on July 11 when it sustained heavy damage from the blast at the nearby naval base. The plant used to cover over 50 per cent of the island’s electricity needs.

Previously, the station could only import fuel via a submarine pipeline. Now, technicians must make modifications to the installations so that fuel can be exported, or pumped out, of the massive tanks and onto a tanker.

In an undertaking expected to take weeks, the unused Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) at Vasilikos’ tanks is next loaded onto ships and transported to the Moni and Dhekelia power stations.

Meanwhile the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) is working with the Fire Department to bring Vasilikos’ fire safety systems – which also suffered damage from the blast – back to an adequate level, as soon as possible.

Stelios Stylianou, general manager of the EAC, explained that the fuel inside the tanks must be heated to make it fluid before it is pumped out into the underwater pipes.

“We are therefore racing to restore the station’s fire-fighting capabilities by August 20 or thereabouts so that the fuel export can take place,” said Stylianou.

Also, the fuel tanks at Vasilikos must be emptied of HFO to make way for diesel, which will power the mobile generators brought in from Greece.

The generators have been installed at the site of Vasilikos, but have yet to go operational due to incompatibility issues. They should be up and running by the middle of the month, Stylianou said.

In addition, technicians at Vasilikos are repairing a gas turbine which sustained limited damage. This unit is expected to be ready by month’s end.

That the HFO at Vasilikos is to be exported to Moni and Dhekelia is an admission that the Limassol plant isn’t expected to be back in shape for a long time.

It could take months before Vasilikos as we knew it is back online, said Stylianou.

European Union experts visiting the island recently estimated the damages to Vasilikos at between €400 and €700 million.

The EAC’s grid currently churns out a little over 700MW – some 400MW short of peak demand. An additional 80MW is being fed to the network from the north.

Once up and running, the mobile generators at Vasilikos should produce around 70MW, and the repaired gas turbine about 35MW.

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.