The President of the Republic Mr. Nicos Anastasiades received today, at the Presidential Palace, the annual report of RAEK for 2020.
Handing over the report, RAEK President Andreas Poullikkas said that the report includes for the last year the report of the Cyprus Transmission System Operator.
He added that "with the new harmonisation legislation, the Cyprus Transmission System Operator is now legally separated from AHK in order to perform its duties impartially for all market participants, whether producers or suppliers of electricity, which is why under the new legislation it can now issue its own annual report.
As far as RAEK is concerned, its competence is the regulation of the electricity and gas markets in Cyprus.
As far as RAEK is concerned, its competence is the regulation of the electricity and gas markets in Cyprus.
As regards electricity, we are in the final stages of implementing the competitive electricity market in Cyprus. There have been delays, you know that, but the last thing that is left, the Operator's software, is being completed this year in April, going into a trial phase until October and then the competitive electricity market in Cyprus which is harmonised and fully compatible with the EU target model that all EU member states are operating with.
Regarding the period of time when there were delays, RAEK had introduced the transitional regulation.For the first time in Cyprus we have licensed electricity suppliers apart from electricity producers, two of them have been active since last year, since 1.1.1.2020, and they have a market share today of around 2% of consumers, who now have an alternative independent supplier.
Regarding electricity prices, we are experiencing a strange period, we have had high electricity prices before. Strange period because in addition to the small increase in costs in the international price of oil there has been a huge increase in the cost of buying carbon allowances And strange as it may seem, these costs have increased because of the increase in the cost of gas in Europe. And because that cost has increased, a number of companies have used plants that were back-up plants that use coal and there has been a big demand in the carbon market, which is why the price of carbon allowances has gone up. We expect that the prices that we have today at 70 to 90 euros a tonne will remain until the end of the winter and will now come down to around 50 euros a tonne based on the forecasts which is the normal price.
For the gas market, RAEK has already licensed the Gas Transmission System Operator and the Gas Plant Operator, as demonstrated by the Council of Ministers, and we are waiting for the legislation to transform DEFA into a semi-public body so that we can also license the sole supplier, as the decision of the Council of Ministers, for the emerging market.
Based on the timelines before us we expect that natural gas will be available in Cyprus around the middle of next year.
Finally, in the strategic planning of RAEK we have included several activities for the energy transition. Such as, for example, on storage technologies, redesigning the electricity transmission and distribution system to make it smart, bidirectional and able to accommodate several renewable energy sources together with storage systems. We are also following very closely the Euro-asia interconnector, Euroafrica interconnector and we have also started to formulate a regulatory framework in terms of hydrogen technologies.
Thank you for the great importance you attach to RAEC's activities."
For his part, the President said that "I am following with great attention the decisions you are taking, the interventions you are making so that we can achieve as soon as possible the opening of the market, which will create healthy competition and certainly the vertical reduction or a significant reduction in electricity.
At the same time, your policies on the green transition have a paramount role and discourse in the policies of the state. A market such as Cyprus, which is isolated, with the plans of EastMed and Euro-asia and Euroafrica interconnector, I believe that it will give the other dimensions, besides, it may be one of the options to exploit the natural wealth of the Eastern Mediterranean basin.
More, however, on what concerns RAEK and the issues related to the arrival of natural gas with the opening of the market and licensing, we will say more next week when I have set a meeting, so that there will be a detailed and not just global information to see what is required, to speed up certain procedures and by whom, so that we have the best possible results."
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