Demand for electricity a record in recent years

Amid the relentless heatwave and with air-conditioning units working at full blast, demand for electricity on Monday reached 1243 megawatts, a record in recent years.

Hara Kousiappa, deputy spokesperson for the Transmission System Operator (TSO) said demand for electricity peaked at 1243 megawatts (MW) at 2.30pm.

It was a record for this year, as well as for recent years. By comparison on August 5, 2021 demand had registered at 1239 MW.

Asked whether Monday’s was an all-time record as well, Kousiappa told the Cyprus Mail she did not have that data on hand.

Reiterating earlier comments by another TSO official, she said the grid can hold as it has capacity for generating up to 1271 MW from conventional fuels plus up to 550 MW from renewables.

On Monday specifically, renewables capacity stood at 523 MW, although actual maximum output – at around 1pm – from renewables was at 355 MW.

Earlier, Kousiappa told other media that electricity demand might reach 1110 MW during the day. But at 2pm Harry Zavallis, deputy director of operations and personnel at the TSO, gave an update that consumption had broken the 1240 MW mark.

Zavallis likewise reassured the public that there was no danger of outages, barring some unforeseen malfunction to the system.

Last Friday, electricity demand reached 1011 MW. On Saturday and Sunday, demand registered at 1005 and 1006 MW, respectively.

On Monday temperatures reached 42C inland.

The weather service forecasts the heatwave will continue throughout the week.