Further deliberation is needed over the energy minister’s proposal to create a state-owned electricity grid company, EAC board director Giorgos Petrou said on Friday, after a preliminary meeting.
The state grid company, which would entail unbundling the EAC’s energy transmission from generation and supply, would then participate as the investor in the Great Sea Interconnector project.
The move aligns with the EU’s third energy package, adopted in 2009, which introduced rules on the separation of energy provision functions, as well as new requirements for independent regulators, a European agency for the cooperation of national energy regulators (ACER), European networks for transmission system operators for electricity (ENTSO-E) and gas (ENTSOG), and enhanced consumers’ rights in retail markets.
Since the proposal for the creation of an independent state grid operator became known, EAC unions have brought a number of concerns to the table which are being debated.
The EAC board will meet early next week with the authority’s administration to address questions on the subject and to discuss the organisation’s response to the ministry, Petrou said.
This will be followed by meetings with the unions.
“We have to examine all options and then give an answer,” the EAC board director said, adding that the matter warranted in-depth scrutiny of the pros and cons and what was in the country’s best interests.
The EAC had committed to give its final answer before the end of November, he added.
The authority is the sole expert [for linking the grid to the GSI] and will be ready to do so in about a year, Petrou said.
He also said that how the proposed state grid operator would affect the EAC’s internal structure, needed to be examined.
Speaking on CyBC’s morning programme, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou for his part, also reiterated that behind the idea of creating a state company to manage the grid and transmission, was the matter of the EAC’s expertise.
The proposal had come about within the larger context of upgrading and modernising the grid, including the incorporation of energy storage.
“The motive is focussed on the EAC’s acknowledged expertise. In the past we had large projects being monitored by companies of non-experts and the logic was to take the discussion to the body which has the know-how,” Papanastasiou said.
As for the arrival of natural gas and completion of the terminal at Vasiliko, the state natural gas infrastructure company (Etyfa) was “cautiously proceeding” with the appointment of a project manager to assist in the securing of offers to narrow down the company to complete the remaining jetty and land works at the LNG terminal site.
Elsewhere, regaining access to the regassification unit (Frsu) Prometheus, which is mired in disagreements with the Chinese consortium CPP Metron (CMC), the minister said “intense negotiations” were underway and the securing of the vessel, which is legally the property of the Republic, was in its “final” stage.
“Nothing can be announced at present, but we are moving in the right direction and may have an announcement within the next few days,” he said.
Outcomes on the Aphrodite gas field discussions are awaited within four months, he said.
Use of natural gas could begin once certain land works were complete and the Prometheus is 95 per cent ready to be used as a floating unit, the energy minister said.
