Industrial giant Siemens AG has been chosen as the preferred bidder to build the Cyprus-Greece electricity connection, with regulators discussing issues of interoperability to ensure linking their national grids goes ahead smoothly.
The transmission system operator of Cyprus (TSOC) and Greece (ADMIE), as well as officials from EuroAsia Interconnector and the Crete-Attica link operator, Ariadne, have agreed to a joint technical committee, Financial Mirror reports on Wednesday.
It will report to the energy ministries of Cyprus and Greece within the next two weeks on the best way to achieve the link-up of the two cables in Crete, Cyprus daily Phileleftheros said.
The agreement to set up the joint committee followed a teleconference chaired by Stelios Heimonas, director general of the Cyprus Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Tourism and Alexandra Sdoukou, secretary general of the Hellenic Ministry of Energy and Environment.
The aim of the joint committee is to speed up the technical specifications of the 1208km EuroAsia Interconnector that will start from Hadera, Israel, reach Kofinou in Cyprus and from there to Crete, where it will join the 328km Ariadne Interconnection.
The newspaper said that throughout the three-month lockdown period caused by coronavirus, there was no delay in the project in Cyprus.
Bidding for the tender, Siemens was announced as the preferred bidder to build the HVDC converter stations at a cost of €623 million.
According to reports, both the Israel-Cyprus and Cyprus-Crete interconnections will be ready in December 2023, transmitting 1,000MW and with a design capacity of 2,000MW.
Siemens was also chosen as the preferred bidder for the parallel project, the 1,000MW EuroAfrica Interconnector subsea electricity cable connecting Egypt to Cyprus and then to Europe, which should be completed by December 2023.
