Nationwide disruption in the middle of the day. Shortly before 11 a.m., amid a heat wave, one area after another loses power. Residents from Nicosia to the mountains wonder what happened.
Traffic lights at various locations stopped working, and dozens of people were trapped in elevators.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
“The Fire Department received dozens of calls requesting assistance in freeing people from elevators due to the power outage. The calls came from all districts, but mainly from Nicosia and Limassol, where there were the most incidents.” Fire Department
Shortly thereafter, it became known that the cause of the outage was a momentary loss of telecommunications connections between the large solar farms and the Electricity Distribution Control Center. Around 10:40 a.m., output from the solar farms suddenly dropped by 165 megawatts, which led to a system-wide reduction in consumer load across Cyprus in order to stabilize the grid.
“The output from these parks is sent to the Distribution Control Center, and that center sends this data to us so we can calculate what needs to be curtailed in the event of excess generation. We had reserve capacity, but the units cannot automatically draw on that reserve to stabilize the system.” Haris Zavalis, Assistant Director of the Transmission System Operator
Power was gradually restored over the next hour.
“We apologize for the inconvenience caused and thank consumers for their understanding and cooperation. The relevant departments of the EAC are taking measures to install backup telecommunications connections, with the aim of preventing similar incidents in the future.” EAC
Spectators to the same scenario
Once again, the power outage caused significant inconvenience to patients at diagnostic centers.
“Those few seconds between when the power goes out and when the generator starts producing electricity—especially during MRI scans—are critical; the machines freeze, remain stuck, and you have to restart them. We had two cases involving children, one elderly person, and another two or three cases—middle-aged people, let’s say. And again, they were calling us. “He was paralyzed.” George Kouttoukis, President of the Pan-Cyprian Association of Diagnostic Centers
The Association’s President complains that although he sent a list of diagnostic centers to the relevant authorities a year ago so they could be included among the critical infrastructure exempt from power outages, this has not yet been done.
See the report by Rafaella Stavrinou
