North Cyprus paid south Cyprus $19 million for electricity last year

The TRNC’s electricity authority Kib-Tek paid the Cyprus (south) Electricity Authority $19 million to cover the north’s energy shortfalls in 2023, Kib-Tek employees’ trade union (El-Sen) chairman Ahmet Tugcu said on Monday.

Speaking to Kibris Postasi TV, he explained that Turkish energy company Aksa, which operates one of the north’s two power stations, was “not even providing 60 per cent of the energy” it is supposed to be providing to the north.

As a result, he said, Kib-Tek had no choice but to buy electricity from the south.

Majority of amount, a whopping €14m, was paid during August, when malfunctions at the TRNC’s power station during the hottest period of the year forced them to buy electricity from the south.

Tugcu said at the time that the EAC was charging Kib-Tek €0.56 per kilowatt hour.

“To avoid power cuts, the south needs to provide us with at least 70 to 100 megawatts of energy every day. If the south gives us this energy, we will not have any problems,” he had said at the time.

Moving on to the matter of Kib-Tek’s precarious financial situation, he said Kib-Tek is paying Aksa $2m (€1.8m) in rent for the Kalecik power station.

He also took a swipe at Aksa for moving to install a 25-year-old generator at Kalecik.

“They are providing services with machines left over from 1999. I saw it and my eyes filled with tears,” he said.

Aksa had been bound by a contract signed in July to install new generators at Kalecik to increase the plant’s capacity by 35 megawatts, but concerns have been raised over the nature of the generator.

Cyprus Turkish Chamber of Mechanical Engineers (KTMMO) chairman Ayer Yarkiner said last week that “information was given to the press that the generator has a capacity of 17.5 megawatts and is new. When it was inspected, it turned out it is not new and does not have a capacity of 17.5 megawatts.”

The contract itself has come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks, with its stipulations effectively adding an extra 40 million TL to Kib-Tek’s most recent repayment to Aksa – a charge which will no doubt be passed on to Turkish Cypriot consumers.

In addition, Aksa’s chairman of the board Cemil Kazanci last week came under fire after reportedly convincing Kib-Tek to take out a 1 billion TL loan with an interest rate of 49 per cent to service its debts.

Ahmet Tugcu on Monday said he had demanded an official report be prepared regarding the contract and that, together with the KTMMO, El-Sen will take the contract to court.

He also said a number of institutions in the TRNC had not paid their debts to Kib-Tek, saying the Hala Sultan mosque in Haspolat owes Kib-Tek 1.5 million TL and Ercan airport owes 33 million TL.