EAC - Panels

[Oakland]

Good Day All

Like many we have gone ahead and installed Photovoltaic Panels on our roof , and after a minimal wait EAC came and connected us to the Grid .
So Happy , but wait .
Now we are finding every day at around 12 and up until 4 in the afternoon they are shutting down our ability to send our generated electricity to the grid , basically all that time lost .
They , EAC also have a scheme to help the vulnerable to have the system installed on their houses , but are not telling they are shutting them down for a number of hours . These people have to pay approx. 500 Euros to have the system and then 150 per month for a period of around 4 years , or until the amount for installation is paid . Yet they will still be facing bills , which they thought would be minimal .

My question , the government were pushing everyone to go green and support this initiative , but on the other hand all those people who complied are now being screwed by the same .

Is there any recourse for this ???

Les

[cyprusmax47]

Well, these month in spring the grid at the moment cannot cope with the amount of electricity coming from photovoltaic modules, specially when there is also windy conditions and full sunshine(and wind farms also producing)while there is no big load from households with air conditioning like in summer. But I must say, it happens only very rare (2-3 times so far this year) at my place and only for ca 1 hour at lunchtime that I have reduced feed-ins of my produced electricity at clear days and wind.

However, as your installation is new, very soon you will find out over the time, how much you are benefiting from a PV installation on your roof.
Usually your invested capital will be paid back in 4-5 years, while this investment in solar energy is a long term thing. Modern PV modules will work proper 30-40 years while inverters have long guarantees (10 years and more).

Also EAC started to install so called smart meters to have a better control of their grid in order to avoid too high voltage and getting stable frequency. In response to a change in frequency, inverters are configured to change their power output to restore the standard frequency. (hence reduced feed-in)

Further EAC is also busy to improve the outdated generation of electricity at Dhekelia power station, in order to be able to regulate electricity production much faster than currently, as this also leads to overloading their grid.

Max

[sunspot]

Also EAC started to install so called smart meters to have a better control of their grid in order to avoid too high voltage and getting stable frequency. In response to a change in frequency, inverters are configured to change their power output to restore the standard frequency.

Does this mean that a smart meter will allow EAC to curtail our harvesting to a greater extent than they are already doing? Seems that independent battery storage is the only way forward for households that can afford it.

[cyprusmax47]

Also EAC started to install so called smart meters to have a better control of their grid in order to avoid too high voltage and getting stable frequency. In response to a change in frequency, inverters are configured to change their power output to restore the standard frequency.

Does this mean that a smart meter will allow EAC to curtail our harvesting to a greater extent than they are already doing? Seems that independent battery storage is the only way forward for households that can afford it.

No, it does not. I tried to explain why they are installing smart meters to consumers now: it will for example enable supply and demand in the electricity grid to be balanced, in order to keep it stable overall. Frequency and voltage, both are effected, and both of them are controlling your inverter.

When voltage is above ca 253v the inverter disconnect you from the grid for some minutes, however if frequency is out of normal range the inverter will down regulate the electricity you can export to the grid.

Max

[Oakland]

Good Day Max

So basically our outage is somewhat exceptional for 4 hours at a time . We will monitor over the coming month to get an average .

So basically , if I understand correctly , when the demand will increase during the Summer with AC's and such like being used , then our supply to the grid should be constant , and not interrupted as is the case now .

My only concern is that EAC, see we are supplying more than our billing and we are going into credit , they don't decide to close us mere mortals down for a few hours to get some revenue .

We are somewhat new to this , so on a learning curve .

But some friends of ours who got on the wagon some time back , have the smart meter , but they don't have the shut down system by EAC , as it was installed pre this innovation , do you think time will catch up with them , as seems a bit unfair in my eyes

[cyprusmax47]

Good Day Max

So basically our outage is somewhat exceptional for 4 hours at a time . We will monitor over the coming month to get an average .

So basically , if I understand correctly , when the demand will increase during the Summer with AC's and such like being used , then our supply to the grid should be constant , and not interrupted as is the case now .

My only concern is that EAC, see we are supplying more than our billing and we are going into credit , they don't decide to close us mere mortals down for a few hours to get some revenue .

We are somewhat new to this , so on a learning curve .

But some friends of ours who got on the wagon some time back , have the smart meter , but they don't have the shut down system by EAC , as it was installed pre this innovation , do you think time will catch up with them , as seems a bit unfair in my eyes

Yes, for me it looks a bit strange that your "outage" lasts from 12 to 4 PM. Beginning of April the PV modules will not produce too much after 3 PM, so the load on your grid connection can't be that high that the inverter switches off completely, due to high voltage.

You understand correctly that in summertime when you run your air-cons you will feed back to the grid much less electricity, as you are using it straight in the house, hence voltage will not go up and less stress on the grid.

I was playing, just for interest, with my installation in the past and when voltage was getting above 252v, I switched on some loads (air-cons, battery back-up, cooking) in the house with the result that voltage went below 250 and my inverter would not switch-off at all.
(but that's just me, because I like to see results in practice and not just on the internet or in the press which is often wrong)

Don't be concerned that EAC is interfering your production to get more revenue, but that won't be the case. There are plenty people with thousands units credit on their meter and they have no problem at all. (also me)

The first few smart meters in Paphos have been installed 2 month ago, so one cannot expect too much result yet.

https://cyprus-mail.com/2025/04/01/whic ... art-meters

Max

[mark4007]

Curtailment of domestic PV has nothing to do with smart meters.

The EAC shuts down inverters by sending out a signal to a box that has a switch in it that either turns off or turns on the inverter.

Newer installations (from sometime in 2024) have the box... most older installations do not. If you have the box the EAC can and has been turning off inverters. If you dont have the box the EAC cant turn off your inveter without visiting you.

[jeba]

Hasn't there recently been a decision by Parliament for the EAC to purchase battery storage systems? Shouldn't that fix the problem (providing the'll buy enough of them)?

[mark4007]

nope... it will reduce curtailments for domestic PV installations.. but overall increase prices for those without PV modules on their roofs

[Dominic]

No, the electricity stored in the batteries can be used instead of having to rely on fossil fuels to generate electricity. Isn't that the whole point?

[mark4007]

No, the electricity stored in the batteries can be used instead of having to rely on fossil fuels to generate electricity. Isn't that the whole point?

I agree that batteries (or rather energy storage) are a good thing. But I am focused here on the claim that electricty will cost less for ALL consumers

So someone run me through how these batteries reduce electric prices in cyprus?

These batteries and this whole debate has happened because of curtailments of domestic PV. (commercial PV curtailments has been going on for years and nothing was done)

Domestic PV with net metering normally exports when it is sunny. The household then imports the credits back when it is nit sunny. So for the household they export clean energy and import fossil fuel energy (i know over simplification but you see the point). Someone has to pay for the fossil fuel imports. Domestic PV producers dont pay for fossil fuel generation (because they are just importing units they have exported). Instread the cost of ALL fossil fuel generation is shared amongst those that do pay for fossil fuel generation.

IE those that dont have domestic PV are paying for the fosssil fuel used by those that do have domestic PV. Introducing batteries allows more domestic PV to be exported and thus more fossil fuel to be inported at a latter date by thise users. So those that do not have domestic PV pay for more and more of the fossil fuel being used by those that do have domestic PV.

If you now start buying new battery storage you have the cost of those batteries and the cost of running them. If the EAC pays for this then how do they recover the cost? Domestic PV households effectively pay for network costs and admin (if they run surplus credirs). the battery cost is not a network cost. So the cost of the battery will be part of the cost of the fuel produced one way or another. So this cost will be oicked up by those who dint have domestic PV.

For those still with me i can hear you point out the flaw in my argument.. " Domestic PV exports are given freely and reduce the cost of fuel for other users .. the import is just a rebalancing". That is true if you ignore the losses on energy transmission .. which is at least 10%. but lets ignore those losses. But that rebalancing only works if the EAC doesnt start having to pay additional cost to store the energy that domestic PV households export. So once the EAC starts paying for batteries to store domestiv PV it is making a loss on the net metering arrangement.

The economic case for installing batteries to store exported electricty from households that have a net metering arrangement does not add up.

Of course there is a simple solution. Get rid of the net metering arrangement for new installations and have a feed in tarrif etc. or just skip ahead to dynamic pricing of imports and exports for electricty .. untill this happens...

Those with domestic PV who do not have cut off switches - no change in electric cost
Those with domestic PV that are being cutailed will see a reduction in their electric cost as they will be curtailed less often
Those without domestic PV will see an increase in electric cost as they will be the ones paying for the cost of buying and running those batteries ....