North Cyprus supplied electricity to the south after power station broke down in the south

North Cyprus on Monday night supplied the south with electricity after a fault at the Dhekelia power station left south Cyprus unable to fulfill its own electrical needs.

The Cyprus Electricity authority (EAC) spokeswoman Christina Papadopoulou confirmed on Tuesday that electricity had been procured from the north on Monday night, and that “it looks like” the same will happen on Tuesday night.

Electricity can be procured by either of Cyprus’ two sides from the other via the two points at which the grids are interconnected, in the Nicosia suburb of Athalassa and in the village of Orounta, near Güzelyurt.

The north has two power stations, one named Teknecik, near Kyrenia, and one named Kalecik, near the village of Eskişehir on the island’s east coast.

Both sides pay the aggregate of electricity procured from the other, with the north typically paying the south for electricity.

Leader of electricity workers’ trade union in the north El-Sen, Ahmet Tugcu had said last year that in July, at the height of summer, Kib-Tek had paid the EAC a total of $2 million (€1.8m) for the supply of electricity.

The fault at the Dhekelia power station comes after local residents had staged a protest there on Sunday, demanding it be upgraded with “less polluting machinery” to be “less harmful” to both the environment and human health.

Mukhtar of nearby Ormidia, Antonis Photi declared that the continued operation of the power station in its current form is “unacceptable”, describing its current machinery as “ancient”.

“It pollutes the oxygen we breathe and our environment, resulting in health problems for the people of the wider area,” he said.

The European Commission had initially demanded that Cyprus close the power station, given that it does not meet the EU’s emissions targets, but Cypriot government promises to modernise it to mitigate those emissions saw the deadline extended twice.