Government decision pending on power cable involvement

The government will decide by the end of the month whether the Cypriot state will invest in the mooted Great Sea Interconnector project, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou said on Tuesday.

The minister said a team of experts will visit the island over the next few days to present their feasibility study vis a vis Cyprus’ participation in the project as a stakeholder.

The team will present its findings to the president, and to the ministers of energy and finance.

“The timeline we’ve set for taking a decision is by end of January… and following that we will let Admie (Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator) know,” Papanastasiou told reporters.

Admie is the project promoter.

Regarding the study, the minister said it will cover the financial feasibility of the subsea power cable project, which involves linking the electricity grids of Cyprus, Greece and Israel.

The report will also cover the geopolitical dimension. In addition, it will compare the project to potential alternatives, such as the storage of power in Cyprus’ electricity grid, and will include a due diligence.

The Great Sea Interconnector is the new commercial name for the EuroAsia Interconnector.

Cyprus is part of the project regardless, but the government is considering whether to directly invest in it as well.

Back in December, Papanastasiou stated the Cypriot state’s participation – were such a decision to be taken – would be by acquiring a direct stake in a new holding company to be formed.

Cyprus could invest up to €100 million.

Assuming this happened, he said at the time, Cyprus and Admie would jointly hold the majority stake in the holding company.

Greece’s Admie is 51 per cent owned by the Greek state. The State Grid Corporation of China has a 24 per cent stake, with the rest owned by other investors.

In January 2022 the European Commission had approved €657 million under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for the cable project. There was also an additional grant of €100 million through the Cyprus Recovery and Resilience Plan, part of the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

The power cable was pitched as aiming to end Cyprus’ electricity isolation from the European continent.