Israel sends power generators to Cyprus, Greece to ship more units

A ship carrying ten small generators from Israel with a total output capacity of 10 MW sailed into Limassol Port on Wednesday night, as part of efforts to alleviate the island’s severe electricity shortage after the biggest power station was knocked out two days earlier.
An arms cache of 98 containers from Iran headed to Syria was confiscated in 2009 and left exposed to the scorching sunlight that eventually blew up at dawn on Monday killing 12 seamen and fire fighters at a naval base next to Vassiliko power station.
The Greek state-owned utility, Public Power Company (DEH) is sending larger mobile generators with a total output capacity of some 90-120 MW from its facilities in Crete.
However, even with the energy saving measures and rationing of power cuts throughout the island, the sole power station at Dhekelia has been producing at capacity, unable to replace the more than 800 MW produced by Vassiliko.
The authorities have also asked for assistance in assessing the damage to the power station and its restoration. To that end the European Union will deploy an assessment and coordination team of experts. A liaison officer from the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) of the European Commission will arrive in Cyprus Thursday to prepare the arrival of the team.
Trade Minister Antonis Paschalides is continuing contacts to secure generators from abroad, which would be connected to the Electricity Authority of Cyprus network.
Paschalides said he was also in contact with the European Commissioner for Energy, as well as France and Germany, which offered to send generators.
He added that the hotels will enjoy uninterrupted supply in a bid to avoid damaging the tourist industry.
Haris Loizides, chairman of the Cypriot Hotel Associations, PASYXE, said that this reassurance should be put into action, noting that this is matter of credibility both for Cyprus as a tourist destination and for the Cypriot hoteliers.
''We have assured tour operators that there will be uninterrupted supply of electricity in the hotels,'' he added.