THE GOVERNMENT must immediately decide how the extra electricity costs will be distributed, DISY MPs said after meeting yesterday with the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA).
“It seems that the production costs will be double from what they were before the tragic event (the July 11 naval base blast),” said opposition DISY’s Ionas Nicolaou.
Cypriot households and industries already pay the highest electricity charges among the EU-27 according to Eurostat.
Currently the EAC is paying for supply from the north plus the cost of generators, and private companies who are supplying the authority with extra wattage. It is losing millions every month.
“If the state doesn’t decide what to do with the cost, we unfortunately expect that it will be immediately passed on to the consumers,” Nicolaou said adding that the public and the economy could not possibly handle that.
CERA’s head, Giorgos Shammas, said that the EAC was calculating the cost of producing electricity and would submit these to CERA.
The EAC is a semi-governmental organisation and cannot change their prices without approval by CERA.
Their report should be in before the end of August, Shammas said.
The topic of renewable energy sources was also raised by DISY’s Lefteris Christofou who called them “a significant asset.”
“This is not just a European Union obligation which we ought to fulfil but today especially, after the energy crisis…it is an urgent necessity as a very important and good solution in crises and for the future,” Christoforou added.
By 2020 Cyprus should cover 13 per cent of its energy needs by renewable sources, according to the European Union Directive.
The island’s 2010 target was 6.0 per cent, but the actual percentage reached was only 4.3 per cent.
The Greens also had a meeting with Shammas yesterday.
The party’s Giorgos Perdikis said the party was campaigning to inform the public on energy saving.
Saving electricity is “the surest way” to pay less, Perdikis said.
Meanwhile, the EAC’s chairman Harris Thrassou said they were hoping that the mobile generators from Greece, capable of giving an additional 70MW would be connected to the grid by August 15.
“It seems that the goal is achievable,” he added talking about the generators.
The generators provided by Energy International – an added 95MW – should arrive by the end of the month, Thrassou said.
