North says it pays Republic €14 million for electricity

The north paid the Republic around €14 million for electricity in the space of the last month, its electricity authority (Kib-Tek) employees’ union (El-Sen)’s general secretary Ahmet Tugcu said on Monday.

Speaking to local media, he explained that following malfunctions to electricity generators in the north, the Republic supplied around 25 million kilowatt hours of electricity, at an average cost of around 16TL (56 cents) per kilowatt hour.

This led to an overall cost to Kib-Tek of around 400 million TL (€14 million).

In turn, this effectively caused Kib-Tek to lose 287 million TL (€10 million) over the last month, as the usual price of producing the same amount of electricity in the north is just 131 million TL.

Kib-Tek’s debt issues were also touched on by Tugcu, who insisted that “Kib-Tek has no financial problems if it is managed properly”.

He said Kib-Tek is currently around 1.5 billion TL (€52 million) in debt, but that it is owed around €2.5 billion TL (€87 million). He added that large debts are owed to Kib-Tek by ‘government’ institutions, mosques and public broadcaster Bayrak.

He added that if the money is not paid “we need to cut the electricity of the institutions and ensure that money enters the coffers. El-Sen will do what [Kib-Tek’s] management could not”.

Speaking on the issue of continued power cuts in the north, he said “the machinery installed at Teknecik power station can produce 310 megawatts. Currently, 177 megawatts can be used due to lack of maintenance and spare parts. We are losing 133 megawatts due to its inefficient operation and there is an energy deficit of between 70 and 100 megawatts.”

He pointed out that this deficit had previously been covered by the Republic, but, as his colleague Caglayan Cesurer had said last week, the Republic had stopped supplying power northwards due to its own needs.

“To avoid power cuts, the south needs to provide us with at least 70 to 100 megawatts of energy every day. If the south gives us this energy, we will not have any problems,” he said.

Fortunately for Turkish Cypriot consumers, the issues faced by the Republic’s electricity authority (EAC) were solved on Monday, with the full power supply restored, according to the transmission system operator’s spokesman Vrahimis Koutsonikola.

He told the Cyprus Mail that a technical fault had reduced the Republic’s power output on Wednesday and that the power supply to the north had to be cut “in order to ensure a constant supply in the Republic”.

However, he said, the issue had now been resolved and power was being transferred to the north to cover its own energy deficit.

He said he was unable to comment on the exact amount being paid by the north for the electricity, saying it is a matter between the EAC and Kib-Tek.