Energy Minister Michael Damianos on Monday stressed that the Cypriot government putting money forward for the construction of the Great Sea Interconnector is conditional on there being progress made in its construction, saying that “if electricity does not come to Cyprus, we will not pay”.

He confirmed after presenting his ministry’s budget for next year to the House finance committee that the amount of expenses Greece’s independent power transmission system operator (Admie) has claimed that it has spent on the project has risen to €302 million.

This figure is up from the €250m his predecessor George Papanastasiou had confirmed in August last year.

However, he said, the proportion of those expenses verified by the Cyprus energy regulatory authority (Cera) stands at €82m, which is not a cent higher than the figure which had been announced almost 15 months ago.

In effect, the Cypriot authority has refused to verify that any money has been spent on the interconnector project since August last year, despite Admie having reported that it spent €52m in that time.

Damianos then stressed that Cypriot consumers will only begin paying for the project following its completion and when Cyprus is receiving energy via the interconnector cable from Greece, and added that “the share attributable to Cypriot consumers is planned to be repaid over a period of 30 years”.

Regarding the possibility of the cost of constructing the interconnector increasing, he said that “additional resources should be sought, possibly from investors, funds, or through financing from the European Investment Bank”.

More to follow…