Interconnection of the national electricity transmission networks of Cyprus, Israel and Greece
In the decision to reach an agreement on the participation or not of the Republic of Cyprus in the Great Sea Interconnector project by next Thursday and to submit a relevant proposal to the Council of Ministers, which will meet the following day, Friday February 2, they concluded, as informed by KYPE , the Ministers of Finance and Energy, Trade and Industry Makis Keravnos and Giorgos Papanastasiou, respectively, in a meeting they had on Tuesday afternoon, at the Ministry of Finance.
During the meeting, which was also attended by the competent officials of the two Ministries on the matter of the Great Sea Interconnector (formerly EuroAsia Interconnector), "no decision was taken", according to the same information, and an exchange of some floating documents requested by the Ministry of Finance.
As the KYPE is informed, there is an agreement between the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Finance with the aim of reaching an agreement by next Thursday and submitting a relevant proposal from the two Ministries to the Council of Ministers, which will meet next Friday.
The Great Sea Interconnector concerns the interconnection, through submarine cables, of the national electricity transmission networks of Cyprus, Israel and Greece (via Crete), with a capacity of 2,000 MW. In the first phase, the electrical interconnection between Cyprus and Crete will be made and, in the second phase, with Israel.
It is noted that on January 23, an international company presented the study it carried out for the Great Sea Interconnector and which positively evaluates the entire project, thus strengthening the possibility that the Republic of Cyprus will participate in the project.
The company's evaluation showed that the Great Sea Interconnector will have "a great value for the electricity market of Cyprus and at the same time a very high geopolitical value", due to the fact that Cyprus will be in the middle of the interconnection of the national electricity networks of Israel and Greece and according to expansion of Europe.
The implementing body of the project is the Independent Electricity Transmission Operator (ADMIE) of Greece.
Interest in investing in the Great Sea Interconnector project was also expressed by the Investment Fund of the United Arab Emirates (TAQA) during the meeting held last Friday by the CEO of TAQA, Jasim Husain Thabet and members of the Fund with the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulidis in the presidential palace.
It is noted that for the project, with a total cost of around 1.9 billion euros, an amount of approximately 1.2 billion euros will be sought from the market (international investors), while an amount of 657 million euros concerns EU funding, from the Connecting Europe Facility.