A fault at Dhekelia’s power plant on Tuesday morning led to power outages in various areas of Cyprus.

The Transmission System Operator (TSO) said the fault happened at 6.50am, leading to a 51MW power unit going offline.

This caused an outage in various areas that lasted only 17 minutes, the TSO later told the Cyprus Mail.

The previous night (midnight of Monday) a power turbine had malfunctioned, but did not cause disruptions to the system, as the Dhekelia power plant brought on its reserves. The second turbine that malfunctioned on Tuesday morning did briefly disrupt the system.

The Cyprus Mail understands that the outage was related not to power sufficiency in the grid, but rather to wear and tear of the machines.

Such malfunctions are more common during heatwaves. In a typical year, anywhere from six to 20 instances of turbine breakdowns happen across the island’s power stations.

The Dhekelia plant is particularly susceptible as it runs by default on 40-year-old steam turbines. Technicians have taken to calling them ‘old grannies’.

The Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) has back-up turbines in case of emergency.