The deadline for CERA's decision on GSI is approaching - The critical meetings and constant pressures

It is getting closer and closer to the time when the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA) will convene to consider and respond to the objection submitted by the operator of the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) Cyprus-Greece electrical interconnection project, Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO), for a re-evaluation and potential change of CERA’s decision.

According to InBusinessNews sources, the CERA’s top executive body is expected to meet and take its final decisions, on which the future of the monumental project may even depend, within the coming week and by Friday, 30 August at the latest.

However, before CERA's decisions are taken, two important meetings will take place. One will be with the administration of IPTO, which will come to Cyprus for the third time in recent month, and the second with the European Commission, which will finance the electrical interconnection to the tune of €657 million.

As InBusinessNews has been informed, the new meeting between CERA and IPTO will take place before the end of the current week, while the new teleconference with the Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy at the beginning of next week.

Based on the same information, during the CERA-IPTO meeting questions and concerns that CERA continues to have regarding the data submitted by the implementing body of the electrical interconnection and which were evaluated by CERA's financial advisor are anticipated to be discussed, in particular regarding the economic model submitted by IPTO.

It is noted that, for the examination of the economic model submitted by IPTO, CERA requested the input and advice of independent experts who deal with economic models for them to examine the additional data submitted by IPTO, in order to ensure CERA’s decisions are the right ones.

As far as the new teleconference with the European Commission is concerned, this will be the third after CERA's decision to reject the requests submitted by IPTO and which concerned, on the one hand, the deletion of the phrase "may possibly" in the decision for the full recovery of all the money invested by the consumers of both Cyprus and Greece in case the project is not completed, not due to the fault of the implementing body, but due to other factors – such as e.g. the blocking the construction of the project by Turkey (a geopolitical issue, which is purely a non-regulatory issue), as well as, on the other hand, consumers being charged during the construction of the project (ie.before it begins to function), starting from January 1, 2025.

During the new teleconference, the Commission will request an update on how the project is progressing and, possibly, exert new pressure on CERA to take its final decisions.

It will be difficult to eliminate the phrase "may possibly"

However, with regard to IPTO's request to eliminate the phrase "may possibly" regarding the full recovery of all the money invested by the implementing body in case the project is not completed, according to InBusinessNews sources, this can hardly be accepted for the time being.

And this is because CERA seems to have made it clear to all sides that in order to be able to delete this phrase, there must be coverage by either the Governments of Cyprus and Greece or by the European Commission for the two regulators, i.e. CERA (Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority) and Greece’s Regulatory Authority for Energy, Waste and Water (RAAEY).

In essence, CERA requests guarantees from the Government, mainly, that the project will proceed and be implemented, and that there will be no unforeseen developments that will interrupt its work.

It is also worth mentioning that CERA is also requesting guarantees from IPTO that the final cost of construction and operation of the Great Sea Interconnector will not increase along the way and will remain at €1.9 billion.

According to InBusinessNews’ sources, CERA has so far not received guarantees for either issue.

Pressures are mounting, but…

It is also worth mentioning that, while CERA is not making its final decisions, the pressures it is receiving are constantly increasing and in fact are coming both directions, i.e. both to accept IPTO’s requests and to reject them.

Of course, these pressures do not seem to be making an impact since CERA has made it clear to everyone that the decisions it will take will be purely based on technocratic criteria for the benefit of consumers.

Final act for Poullikkas?

In another development, which is in no way connected to the issue of electrical interconnection, the Chairman of CERA, Dr. Andreas Poullikkas, seems to have informed the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, of his desire to leave his position by November.

According to InBusinessNews sources, Poullikkas last April informed President Christodoulides about his intentions, long before the latest developments regarding the electrical interconnection occurred.

Based on the same information, Dr. Poullikkas considers that his service cycle at the Authority has been completed and wishes to return to academia.

(Source: InBusinessNews)