Cyprus not yet out of the Dark Age

 * Power outage revives memories of 2011 disaster *

A power failure shut down the main surviving electricity plant in Cyprus early on Wednesday morning, causing a chain of events that led to the collapse of the entire power supply network and plunged the island into darkness.
One of the units at the Dhekelia power station “stopped working” at 0445 local time, according to a spokesman at the Electricity Authority of Cyprus, followed by “a fault at the steam unit” at the alternative Moni power plant, reminiscent of the munitions blast last July that destroyed the main Vassiliko power station and sent the island into the Dark Ages.
The July 11 explosion of poorly stored containers full of Iranian arms headed for Syria were confiscated in 2009, but political wrangling and the government’s inability to dispose of the munitions led to the worst peace time accident in Cyprus that killed 13 servicemen and firefighters at the nearby Mari naval base.
President Demetris Christofias was widely blamed for the blast, but refused to take responsibility or acknowledge the findings of an independent inquiry he had appointed.
The first unit at Vassiliko is currently under repair by General Electric and the construction company J&P-Avax and should be delivered for production later this year. The remaining units will gradually be replaced and come online from 2013.
EAC spokesman Costas Gavrielides said that only one unit at Moni and two at Dhekelia are now operating, but the main problem is synchronising the units in operation.
From the EAC’s current generation capacity of 840MW, output went flat at 0445 and recovered to 123MW by 0615, gradually picking up after 0900 and reaching 396MW by 10.00 local time. Normal generation at this time of the day used to average 516MW.
Following last year’s electricity shortages, the EAC and the government resorted to renting diesel generator units from Greece, America and Israel and have bought electricity from the Turkish occupied areas of the island. This caused a surge in demand for generators with prices in the private sector rising rapidly due to a lack of supply.
In an indication that the EAC will not be able to fully recover any time in 2012, the government has also reportedly leased 80 smaller power generators to be used at various locations during the 6-month presidency of the European Council starting on July 1.