Recent short power outages due to upgrades, EAC says

The recent power outages at the Vasiliko power station have a good reason, as two important projects are being carried out at the same time, spokeswoman of the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) Christina Papadopoulou told the Cyprus Mail on Wednesday.

“There are two big complicated projects to upgrade the power station going on, one is to make amendments to the generation unit so it can use natural gas, the other is to limit emissions of nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxides in line with EU directives,” she explained.

Both are at the testing stage, and trials cause some problems, but none of the power cuts last very long, Papadopoulou said, as after about 15 minutes backup systems kick in.

It is not certain when exactly the problems will be resolved, but they cannot be avoided as the updates are a must.

At present, the EAC uses highly polluting fuel oil, and slashing emissions is mandatory to lessen the environmental impact.

Switching to natural gas is also believed to significantly cut costs.

In August 2017, the EU introduced tougher emission limits for large power plants with which power plant operators have to comply within four years, by August 2021, to avoid large fines.