THE FIVE-HOUR black-out, experienced on Wednesday morning all over Cyprus, served as a reminder of the fragility of our electricity supply system. The system shut down automatically because of a fault in the electricity system in the north with which it has been connected since the Mari blast.
The Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) could not rule out similar power cuts in the future, although steps were being taken to reduce the probability of it happening again. Measures could be taken to reduce the probability, said the EAC general manager yesterday, but this would incur additional costs. The EAC chairman subsequently said that the additional cost would not be passed on to the consumer, but such assurances mean nothing.
The blackout will also increase the political calls for an end to the co-operation with the power station in the north. The expenditure item for purchasing power from the north has not been approved by the legislature and the politicians will now have technical as well as political reasons for opposing co-operation. The interconnection was the cause for Wednesday’s power cut, and EAC engineers maintain that ending it would be the only way to stop problems at the power station in the north affecting our own system.
The EAC spokesman, on the other hand, said that interconnecting the two systems “gives us security of supply and ability to purchase power.” The question that needs to be asked is whether our electricity needs could be met without relying on the north. Vassiliko’s units four and five, which were destroyed by the Mari blast, are expected to be operational again this autumn, assuming everything goes according to plan, but would adequate power be generated to see us through the hot summer months?
This is the question the government and EAC board should answer. Engineers may be right in saying our system would be more stable without the interconnection, but the priority must be the meeting of the country’s power needs and the cost at which this could be achieved. If the cost of bringing in more mobile units would be higher than purchasing power from the north then we should stick to the interconnection, which also gives greater flexibility.
This is what we hope the politicians would consider when discussing whether to approve the purchase of power from the north. Political grandstanding should be put aside as they consider the practical benefits and disadvantages of interconnection. Dependence on power from the north might make our system less stable, but it might be a price worth paying in order to be able to use our air conditioning units whenever we please, in the hot summer months.
