Our View: EAC cannot be trusted to run the photovoltaics scheme

Talking about the council of ministers’ scheme for the installation of photovoltaics (PV), Energy Minister George Papanastasiou said it would be administered by the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC). Although the scheme would not be ready before mid-autumn – that is probably the optimistic scenario – the minister had an idea of how it would work.

Funding would be provided by the EAC, banks and importers/installers of PVs and the householder would repay the amount with monthly instalments that would be included on the electricity bill; said the minister. The idea is that the full cost of the PV system (4, 7 or 10 MW) would be covered through a loan, something that should make the scheme very popular.

Households would rush to take advantage of this scheme, but they would also have to invest in batteries for storage because the electricity grid would not be able to take electricity produced. Even at present, the power output from renewable energy sources (RES) cannot all be taken by the grid which, after all these years has no storage capacity.

After all these years, being fully aware of the direction electricity production was heading, the EAC has done nothing to upgrade the grid because this would erode its production monopoly that it has always safeguarded, regardless of the high electricity rates for households and businesses. The obstruction tactics it employed when RES first became available more than ten years ago are well-known.

It has done everything in its power to delay the opening of the electricity market to private producers, which should have happened at least five years ago. First the electricity authority did nothing, then its unions threatened strikes if it was not given control of the transmissions system and now it is saying that it will need another couple of years before opening the market because it is a complex undertaking.

The unions have been running the EAC and the placement of the political parties on its board are on their side. The priority of the unions has been to preserve the authority’s monopolistic status because this is the way to safeguard all the highly paid jobs. It does not matter that people are paying among the highest electricity rates in the EU, because the unions prevent any competition and therefore we have not taken advantage of the abundant sunlight to produce clean energy.

This is all down to the spoiling tactics of the EAC unions, defending the privileges of their members at the expense of everyone else. Under the circumstances, Papanastasiou should think again before giving control of the PV subsidy scheme to the EAC. The union-run authority cannot be trusted to implement any scheme that might chip away at its monopoly.