Power was restored to villages in the Famagusta and Larnaca districts after a fault at the Dhekelia substation caused power cuts in the region, transmission system operator (TSO) spokeswoman Chara Kousiappa said on Monday morning.
She said at around 3.56am on Monday, there was a “breakdown” in transmission system equipment at the subsystem, which caused protection systems to kick in to isolate the breakdown.
As a result, the substation’s output fell by around 170 megawatts, and power cuts were experienced in Dhekelia, Pyla, Athienou and other nearby villages.
Kousiappa added that the damage had been repaired by 5am and that electricity was restored shortly afterwards.
However, the same fault then occurred again in the same location, with Kousiappa saying this may have been because of increased humidity in the area.
This time, she said, power was restored within half an hour, though similar incidents were by that time occurring across Cyprus’ grid.
As such, she said, time will be taken to study the incidents and to draw conclusions regarding their causes to ensure that “it does not happen again”.
She added that it is currently believed that humidity is the root cause of the incidents, and pointed out that similar incidents were also encountered at substations in the north on Monday morning.
