A technical problem with the telecommunications system used to transmit data from the solar farms to the Cyprus Electricity Authority’s Distribution Control Center is to blame for the power outagesthat occurred in various areas throughout Cyprus on Friday, the EAC’s Press Officer, Christina Papadopoulou, told CNA, adding that the new outage early Saturday morning was caused by a fault in the power grid of the occupied areas.
According to Ms. Papadopoulou, the EAC’s power generation units did not experience any problems either yesterday or today.
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“Today’s outage was the result of a problem that arose in the occupied areas due to the fact that the two grids are connected at two points, as part of the Confidence-Building Measures. Yesterday’s problem was not due to generation or the grid but to telecommunications, as a telecommunications connection is required between the large photovoltaic parks, through which data is transmitted to the EAC Distribution Control Center,” he went on to explain.
He added that the Authority is continuing its investigation in cooperation with the telecommunications provider to determine the exact cause of the problem, while at the same time steps are being taken to install a backup telecommunications line between the solar farms and the EAC’s Distribution Control Center to prevent similar incidents.
As he explained, the Independent Market Operator, which reports to the Cyprus Transmission System Operator, is informed every half hour of the exact amount of electricity a solar or wind farm can contribute and subsequently provides instructions to the Electricity Authority regarding the contribution of specificliquid-fuel power plants.
He added that in order for the TSO to know how much a solar farm can generate, the information is transmitted via the EAC provider’s fiber-optic cables from the photovoltaic parks to the EAC Distribution Control Center, which in turn sends all the data to the TSO, whose role is to ensure the stability of the system and prevent disruptions.
Furthermore, in a statement issued earlier today, the TSO announced that power has been restored to consumers affected by a technical failure in the generation system within the occupied areas.
Source: CNA
