Profit-making EAC told to reduce electricity bills

[Paphos Life]

Lawmakers on Monday said the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) must remain a public utility, but urged the state-run power corporation to give back to taxpayers by reducing the cost of electricity....

Read the article and chat about it below...

[PW in Polemi]

A reduction would be good, especially for those who have found themselves financially stretched due to Covid preventing many from working.

[Kili01]

I feel fed up, the EAC has had years to replace their old generators which guzzle heavy fuel oil with newer ones using gas. They have steadfastly refused to be privatized and are a National organisation whose staff are all union members. It is completely wrong that because of the pollution that these old generators cause, that the consumer is left to pay the resulting heavy fine the the EU have imposed.Our electricity bills which are already expensive will be higher still.
Dee

[Varky]

Dee, is there any institution in Cyprus you do not hate?

Perhaps only a hatred of incompetence.

[Kili01]

Varky, You hit it on the head!

HIC, you never miss a chance of getting at me.I am sure that you've been in Cyprus long enough to understand what I'm talking about.Perhaps you don't mind paying inflated prices on electricity bills.But there are many people in Cyprus at present who are struggling to pay their bills . I feel sorry for them. Even if the Govt have asked EAC to lower their charges.

Dee

[Kili01]

Varky, You hit it on the head!

HIC, you never miss a chance of getting at me.I am sure that you've been in Cyprus long enough to understand what I'm talking about.Perhaps you don't mind paying inflated prices on electricity bills.But there are many people in Cyprus at present who are struggling to pay their bills . I feel sorry for them. Even if the Govt have asked EAC to lower their charges.

Dee

[emgee]

Problem is, of course, no competition. What is the EU doing about it?

Aan

[WHL]

Dee, is there any institution in Cyprus you do not hate?

Silly question

[WHL]

Problem is, of course, no competition. What is the EU doing about it?

Aan

Tiny country, what do you want the EU to do about it,

[emgee]

Introduce competition WHL. I thought that one of the major principles of the EU was competion.

Alan

[WHL]

Introduce competition WHL. I thought that one of the major principles of the EU was competion.

Alan

How does that work, build their own power stations, for a population of one million,

[cyprusmax47]

Competition would be possible with XXL photovoltaic power plants, however they have to use EAC's transmission network and pay for the use, let alone the permits they need from CERA (Cyprus energy regulatory authority) and much more....

Max

[Kili01]

Yes, it wouldn't be easy to set up in competition to EAC. Yet, when the country was struggling post the explosion and the EU sent a term of experts to evaluate all things financial here, one of their suggestions was to open up the electricity supply system on island,to other companies so there would be competition for the supply of electricity to consumers.taking away the EAC monopoly. Unfortunately, this plan never took off and once the team of overseers from EU countries finished their work here, the plan was speedily dropped
Dee.

[WHL]

Moreover, all of the new shiny EAC vehicles for external staff and internal managers would be sitting on bricks if it were the same as Liverpool....



Ok get my coat.

I would imagine most of the consumers in Liverpool use devises or just bits of wire to bypass the meter, that's how to reduce your leccy costs

[WHL]

For many people its also a car now that 'state owned' companies are making huge profits, delivering very poor service and simply not understanding their initial customers needs.

Can you imagine a family previously earning €1500 per month between them and now getting diddly squat for the last several months being in a position to pay over priced bills?

Can you please tell us which state owned companys are delivering very poor services, and give us an example of why you say this,
Cyta for example are second to none . where service is concerned.

[cyprusmax47]

When you drive around the countryside you often see banks of Solar panels in fields. Are these privately owned, or are they the assets of villages?. I just wonder in view of the recent criticism about emissions, are these solar arrays along with household systems ever counted in favour of emission reductions or are they ignored as insignificant.

To focus on the original query as to profits. I would like profits invested in solar farms on poor quality land to boost our production during days when the aircons are at full power all over the island and reduce thereby our oil burn.

Most of the Solar parks (20 KWp to 200 KWp) are privately owned. There are some larger ones which belong to business companies (like the Paphos concrete company Athinodorou which already errected several large plants (1,5 MWp - 3 MWp) and planning two more 5 MWp parks. They have long contracts with EAC with feed-in tariffs of 9.9c per kW/h. I am sure, all installations of PV which are registered, are shown to EU that
something is done to avoid higher CO2 penalties in the coming years. The wind parks we have are a disaster as we have not enough wind in CY to produce decent amount of electricity. However photovoltaic is the way to go, specially since the prices for modules are so much cheaper now.

Max

[Kili01]

I think, as a result of reading or (trying to understand) how are all the additional charges above the actual cost of the no of units of electricity which have been consumed can be justified. All I see is that EAC are milking the consumer for as much money as possible. Why should we have to pay a premium for renewable energy, that's just one?. As a previous producer of energy to EAC I had to pay for the privilege of doing it. I feel that if EACrequire us to pay a service charge, it should be one item. Thus electricity bills would not need to be so complicated and the more these extras cost, the more VAT one pays. Sometimes my basic bill, is only a third of the final cost. This can't be right.
Now, that Cyprus is being charged a hefty fine by the EU, the reason for that is down to them refusing to spend money on producing clean energy such as replacing their old, inefficient heavy oil fueled generators. What are they doing with their profits, if not using money on improving the way that they operate?

When families are very poor, it may come down to whether they have to choose between food and having money available for paying their energy bill.


Dee

[cyprusmax47]

I think, as a result of reading or (trying to understand) how are all the additional charges above the actual cost of the no of units of electricity which have been consumed can be justified. All I see is that EAC are milking the consumer for as much money as possible. Why should we have to pay a premium for renewable energy, that's just one?. As a previous producer of energy to EAC I had to pay for the privilege of doing it. I feel that if EACrequire us to pay a service charge, it should be one item. Thus electricity bills would not need to be so complicated and the more these extras cost, the more VAT one pays. Sometimes my basic bill, is only a third of the final cost. This can't be right.

Dee

I don't know what is so complicated reading and understand the EAC bills and there is no charge for renewable energy either, if you are a producer like me. I even was charging my e-car several times in that period.

Here: part of my last bill I received a few days ago and I am happy that I pay even less than last year, due to the lovely sunshine we had recently...



Max

[Kili01]

Yes, its OK for you Max. But your bill is nothing like mine, either when I had a 3kw photo voltaic system, or now when I don't. You must be a big producer of alternative energy. If I had a bill like yours I would hardly be complaining!

Dee

[Kili01]

Max, But the sort of bill that I have probably is more typical of a typical small semi detached house which doesn't have sufficient space to accommodate the number of PV panels which I had previously....
Dee