This year’s Energy Symposium in Cyprus, which was jointly organised by the Nicosia-based FMW-Financial Media Way company and the Institute of Energy for SE Europe ( IENE), proved once again a fertile ground for presenting and discussing all the different aspects of the island’s energy scene. Held at the downtown Royal Hall, with more than 160 delegates in attendance, the Symposium found itself at the spotlight of political and business deliberations over the next steps that need to be taken in advancing key energy projects. If implemented, these will help change the island’s rather stagnant economy.
Opening the Symposium the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Nikos Christodoulidis, summarised his government’s priorities in energy which are firstly the securing of ample and uninterrupted energy supplies, and secondly, achieving affordable prices for the consumer.The rest of the energy developments in the island evolve around these basic tenets,underlined the President of Cyprus.
On his part the Chairman of the IENE, Costis Stambolis, in his welcome remarks he underlined that this year’s Cyprus Energy Symposium is taking place against a background of intense international activity in the sector, spearheaded by USA’s strong interest in the region and culminating in the 3+1 energy partnership involving Greece, Cyprus, Israel and the USA as it was announced during the P-TEC meeting in Athens in early November. At the same time we observe,noted IENE’s Chairman, that much greater priority is being placed on issues related to energy security which are clearly being prioritised over energy transition and decarbonisation efforts. “ This is essential if we are to normalise market operation and bring energy prices down to more realistic levels”, remarked Costis Stambolis.
High on the agenda of the Cyprus Energy Symposium was the continuing hydrocarbon exploration of Cyprus’s EEZ. The Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry of Cyprus, Mr. George Papanastasiou outlined the plans now in progress to monetize part of the recent gas discoveries by channeling gas volumes to liquefaction facilities in Egypt,via new and existing pipeline networks of certain operators, and from there to be exported as LNG to the international markets.
The need for Cyprus itself to obtain at long last some basic gas supplies in order to fuel its power generation and industry ( which until now uses fuel oil) was stressed by Mr. Mathios Rigas, the CEO of Energean, an important oil and gas producer in the region. In his presentation Rigas outlined plans to bring gas to Cyprus through a 200km undersea pipeline from one of the company’s gas fields offshore in Israel. At the same time, Cyprus is pursuing the introduction of gas to the island through an ill-fated FSRU project still in the making.
The complex geopolitical and geostrategic issues related to the further exploration and production of hydrocarbon resources in Cyprus and Greece were throughly analysed by Dr. Konstantinos Nicolaou, an independent energy consultant and IENE founding partner with deep knowledge of the area, and also by Dr.Charles Ellinas, a well-respected energy expert with substantial experience in the region’s hydrocarbon sector.
The latest developments in the electricity market of Cyprus were discussed in detail in a separate session which was expertly moderated by Mr.Nikos Sofianos, an independent energy consultant,IENE’s Secretary General and Chair of the Institute”s RES committee.Central to the discussion was the liberalisation of the domestic electricity market in line with EU guidelines and the need for the introduction of independent power producers in the island’s electricity market. The need for Cyprus to connect its grid with that of other neighbouring countries, such as Greece and Cyprus, was identified as of the utmost importance as there is a pressing need for the System Operator to be able to balance electricity loads through international interconnections. Such interconnections will result in grid expansion capability and hence the ability of the system to accommodate higher inputs from RES, thus opening the way for more renewable investments.
The Symposium came to an end with a session on renewable energy sources which included a number of presentations related to some latest projects in photovoltaics,hydrogen and energy efficiency and an all-round discussion on how RES could advance more in view of the limitations posed by the island’s restricted electricity grid. Although RES currently cover 21% of Cyprus’s electricity mix, as it transpired in the discussion during the session, there is considerably more potential while interest from investors still remains strong in spite of power curtailments by the system operator in his effort to maintain stability in the operation of the grid.
