ENERGY POLICY-makers will decide in the coming days whether new costly measures are needed to better secure the electricity grid from mass blackouts, raising the prospect of further increases in electricity prices, which have already risen by a third in the last year.
Speaking on radio yesterday, Electricity Authority (EAC) general manager Stelios Stylianou warned that if new measures are adopted to reduce the risk of similar blackouts like the one experienced on Wednesday, the cost will eventually have to be shouldered by the consumer.
A major power outage on Wednesday morning left 80 per cent of the country without electricity for five hours. Transmissions System Operator (TSO) Christos Christodoulides confirmed yesterday that the initial cause of the blackout was a malfunction in the electricity system in the north.
Electricity Authority (EAC) spokesman Costas Gavrielides told the Cyprus Mail that the fault in the north triggered the EAC’s circuit breakers to cut interconnection with the north to protect the EAC’s machines from permanent damage.
However, at the time of the fault, early Wednesday morning, the EAC was rerouting “undesirable reactive power” north. When the two electricity systems on the island were disconnected, the EAC found itself stuck with this unwanted reactive power, which in turn created a domino effect, with automatic safety mechanisms shutting down five of six units at Dhekelia power plant.
The whole scenario played out within a couple of seconds. Contrary to statements by the Green party yesterday, the blackout had nothing to do with the purchase of electricity from Turkish Cypriots as the EAC stopped buying electricity from the north two weeks ago.
On March 22, a majority in parliament effectively blocked the EAC from buying power from the north, putting parliamentary approval as a condition to any such purchase. Despite that, the two systems remained interconnected.
According to Gavrielides, this provides greater stability and security to the electricity system as the EAC can channel undesirable reactive power whenever too much is produced for the EAC’s units to absorb.
“Technically, you get more stability in the system when we are interconnected, and also have extra generating capacity. Interconnection is good. Certainly, parliament’s decision leads to greater costs,” he said.
Reactive power is a non-usable form of power that’s created during the production of real power. In order to ensure stability within the system, this reactive power has to be absorbed by the system. The large units at Vassilikos power plant were big enough to absorb most of this undesirable power before they were destroyed last July by the Mari blast.
Current units at Dhekelia, Moni and the mobile generators placed at Vassilikos do not have the same capacity to absorb large amounts of reactive power.
The TSO met with the EAC and the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA) yesterday morning to discuss the impact of the blackout and ways to reduce the risk of it happening again, with all eyes on Cyprus’ six-month EU Presidency starting July 1.
The three bodies agreed that the TSO will prepare a study in the coming days to decide whether new costly measures will have to be taken to reduce the risk of instability in the system caused by reactive power.
Depending on the outcome, consumers may be asked to burden the cost of any new production costs, after seeing prices rise in the last year by over 33 per cent due to spiralling fuel costs and an additional levy to deal with the destruction of Vassilikos.
Gavrielides said Christodoulides will examine whether the EAC needs to buy Static Var Compensators (SVCs) to absorb reactive power, and if so, how many and what size.
“This costs a lot. If CERA demands it, then our production costs will increase. And if we are talking about many, of course, this cost will have to be passed on to the consumer,” he said.
Asked whether the EAC took into consideration the massive increases in energy costs in Cyprus, making its electricity the most expensive in Europe, the spokesman said the authorities took everything into consideration, including cost and reliability of the system.
“We need to make calculated decisions. There is always a trade-off between reliability and cost.
Everything has to be taken into account, including the price of electricity,” he added.
Regarding calls by some parties, including the Greens and EVROKO to cut all links with the system in the north, Gavrielides said there were technical advantages to interconnecting with and buying power from the north.
“We don’t depend on this, but if we disconnect from the occupied areas, then we have to have other units operating all the time to absorb reactive power, even when we don’t need to. These are expensive to operate because they run on fuel. It reduces the risk of fault but increases costs, it’s a trade-off.”
He added: “Leaving political aspects aside, regarding the technical aspects, it is obvious that if you can get cheaper electricity from the occupied areas, why not get it? Rather than using mobile units that are more expensive.”
Asked whether there was a risk of similar blackouts during the peak summer months, Gavrielides said:
“Of course the risk exists in the summer. It existed before the Vassilikos explosion, and after. All over the world this risk exists and everyone has to deal with it.”
