All-time record for energy demand as Cyprus swelters

The Cyprus distribution system operator expects a lower demand for electricity for Tuesday compared to the all-time record recorded the previous day, deputy spokesperson Rogiros Tapakis said.

Temperatures on Tuesday are expected to fall slightly, though a yellow warning is still in place.

“We had the highest demand of all time in the Cyprus electricity system,” amounting to 1,290 MW, of which 42 per cent was covered by electricity generation from Renewable  Energy Sources (RES) like solar, wind and biomass, he said.

He explained that the reason the operator asked the public to limit their consumption of electricity between 6.00 and 10.00pm on Monday, is that during these hours, production via solar panels is significantly reduced, gradually reaching zero.

This results in all demand having to be covered by conventional electricity generation units.

“Due to reduced photovoltaic production and some limitations that exist in the transmission system as a result of the heat and high humidity, there was a provision [by the operator] for some limits in relation to flows to urban centres, which should not have been surpassed,” he said.

“A plan was put in place so that we could have both conventional production from the power plants and wind production, while there was also a plan to cut the consumer load in case it is needed,” he said. Tthere was no damage, everything went smoothly.”

Regarding Tuesday, Tapakis said that although in the morning demand was a little higher compared to the same time on Monday the organisation has seen a decrease in demand”.

He added that the weather reports predict a temperature decrease of 1 degree, compared to Monday.

“So we expect less demand during the day,” he said. “Without any significant damage (either to a generating unit or to the transmission system), we do not expect any problems in the network and there will not be any reduction of consumer load.”

Tapakis said that demand for Tuesday evening was expected to reach around 1,020 MW, which would be covered almost entirely by conventional generation and added that the peak of the total electricity demand occurs between 2.30 and 2.45pm.