Electricity market to open in July 2025, Energy Minister reveals

The electricity market will open in July 2025 and consumers will be able to choose their supplier, as is the case today in the telecommunications sector, Minister of Energy, Industry and Trade, George Papanastasiou, has revealed.

His comments were made on the evening of 25 July, after a meeting President Nikos Christodoulides had with a delegation of the Electricity Market Association, at the Presidential Palace.

In his statements, the Minister of Energy, who was also present during the meeting, explained that there will be a test period for the competitive market lasting six months, for the systems to work, and he emphasised that this is a development, which will also reduce the price of electricity.

As he said, during the meeting issues such as electrical interconnection through the Great Sea Interconnector, natural gas and the LNG terminal in Vasilikos, the opening of the competitive electricity market, as well as issues related to storage as well as distortions, which exist at this moment in the whole arrangement of electricity, were discussed.

He noted that the most important thing that emerges from the discussion and which is of direct interest to the members of the Electricity Market Association is the opening of the electricity market.

"We strongly believe, and agree with the Association, that in order for the mix of conventional power generation and generation from renewable sources to reduce the cost of electricity at its retail price, these two pillars should be connected through the competitive electricity market" he said, explaining that this is scheduled to be implemented in July 2025.

Papanastasiou explained that "the test period for the systems, to see how the suppliers work, how the entire electricity market works as a whole will start from the end of 2024 and will be in testing for six months" and added that therefore "we expect in July 2025 to launch the competitive market, which will also reduce the price of electricity."

He also pointed out that the other issue, which the Association seems to place great weight on, is the import of natural gas, which, as he said, will greatly help conventional power generation, so that electricity is produced with much lower cost and therefore a lower selling price of conventional electricity.

Regarding the Great Sea Interconnector, the Energy Minister said that "the Electricity Market Association is in favour of it, but they would like it to be done in the right way and with the right application so that this electrical interconnection can deliver and help the further penetration of Renewable Energy Sources in our country".

(Source: CNA)