South Cyprus helps TRNC

Power supply to North Cyprus continues following malfunction

The supply of power to the Turkish Cypriot community continued on Monday following a request on New Year’s Day.

The [Greek Cypriot] director of the transmission system operator, Christos Christodoulides, said Turkish Cypriots asked for assistance at around 5 pm on Friday following a malfunction in one of their units.

“The supply started immediately and ranged between five and 20MW,” he added.

It has continued since, ranging between five and 15MW on Monday.

The decision to link the two grids was taken in May as part of a series of measures to build confidence between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities.

The two communities however, had co-operated in this area twice in the past, in 2006 and most recently in 2011.

This last time was in the wake of naval base explosion in July 2011, which incapacitated the biggest power station in South Cyprus.

In the aftermath the government sought assistance from Turkish Cypriots as it struggled to deal with rolling power cuts.

They were later disconnected as there was no protection from overloads.

It was the other way round in 2006, when Turkish Cypriots experienced problems with production.

However, on these previous occasions time the grids had been hastily connected. Now, they were upgraded and safer.

Asked whether South Cyprus will be paid for the power, Christodoulides said the arrangement will be made with the electricity company.

Source: Cyprus Mail