North’s electricity authority signs 15-year procurement contract with Turkish energy firm

The north’s electricity authority Kib-Tek and Turkish energy company Aksa signed a new 15-year procurement contract on Wednesday.

Aksa owns and operates the north’s Kalecik power plant, near the village of Gastria, and the new contract continues the lease of the site to Kib-Tek until at least 2038.

Kib-Tek is now bound to purchase the energy produced at Kalecik for the next 15 years, and to do so in US dollars.

As part of the contract, Aksa have agreed to increase Kalecik’s capacity by a total of 35 megawatts, bringing the plant’s total capacity to 188 megawatts.

It is also stipulated in the contract that Aksa will operate the planned energy cable which will link Turkey with the north, with the construction contract for the cable having been signed on Tuesday.

Aksa’s chairman Cemil Kazanci said “quick steps” will be taken to realise the cable project.

He added that “we will put Aksa’s signature on the cable, which has been a dream for years in the TRNC”.

However, not everyone was impressed by the move. Ahmet Tugcu, general secretary of Kib-Tek employees’ union El-Sen called the contract “a betrayal”.

He said the north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel had promised to share the details of any such contract with El-Sen, and that this promise had not been kept.

“Unal Ustel did not keep his promises. We were not informed about the content of the contract”, he said.

El-Sen also turned its guns on Kib-Tek’s general manager Dalman Aydin, saying that he had been instructed by the union to share any and all details of such a contract with them before signing it.

El-Sen said Aydin “did not comply” with their instructions and expelled him from the union for a total of nine months.