Fault in north causes brief power cuts across Cyprus

Nicosia, Cyprus. A fault in the north caused power cuts in various areas of Cyprus on Saturday morning, the transmission system operator said. Electricity was restored across the island by 6.09am.

Fault and restoration

The operator said the fault occurred at 5.51am, resulting in some consumers being disconnected from the grid.

Turkish Cypriot electricity workers’ trade union El-Sen leader Ahmet Tugcu confirmed the incident in a social media post, saying that “the world has switched to silicone insulators, but we are still papering over the cracks”.

Insulator concerns

Insulators block electrical current from flowing where it is not wanted and keep power moving safely inside wires. Faulty insulators can cause power cuts by creating a short circuit or ground fault, forcing protective relays to trip circuit breakers.

Tugcu told the Cyprus Mail that the north currently uses glass insulators, which he said are expensive, labour-intensive to replace and made of heavy material.

He said silicone insulators are easier to clean, less expensive and quicker to replace.

“Today’s malfunction is due to the seasonal maintenance of the power grid,” he added.

Previous day’s disruption

The power cuts came a day after a lack of communication between solar farms and the electricity distribution coordination centre led to solar farms being removed from the automatic supply system because the readings sent to the centre were incorrect.

That disruption caused power cuts across the island. The electricity authority initially bought 30 megawatts of electricity from the Turkish Cypriot authorities before the issue spread to the north.

Tugcu said on Friday that the problem in the north arose because it does not have a base load power plant, a large station that runs continuously to provide the minimum electricity required by the grid.