European TSO network rejects Turkish Cypriots’ plans for cable to Turkey

The European network of transmission system operators for electricity (Entso-E) has rejected suggestions that it may include plans for a cable to connect Cyprus and Turkey into its continent-wide ten-year development plan.

Instead, it said, the Great Sea Interconnector project, which, if completed, will connect the electricity grids of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey, “is the only interconnector project connecting the Republic of Cyprus” in its plans.

“This project complies with European Union legal requirements,” it said, before adding that it “will not consider any project for inclusion in the [development plan] that would be proposed or developed without the consent of the Cyprus [transmission system operator] TSO”.

It added that Cyprus’ TSO is “the sole transmission system operator certified for the entire territory of the Republic of Cyprus under EU law”.

The announcement comes after Turkish Cypriot ‘energy minister’ Olgun Amcaoglu had announced last summer that the feasibility study for a 95-kilometre two-way interconnector cable connecting Cyprus and Turkey had been completed, and that applications had been filed to Entso-E.

“We are proposing that we build a 95-kilometre, two-way 400 megawatt – thus totalling 800 megawatt – project, which will be integrated into the Entso-E system, including the Republic of Turkey. This would automatically connect the north and south [of Cyprus], which are already interconnected,” he told Kibris TV.

He added that such a cable would only cost US$450 million (€382m) – less than a quarter of the forecast cost of the Great Sea Interconnector – while its operating costs would also be far lower.

“The annual operating cost of this project is only four or five million dollars, but the operating costs of the other project is between $50m and $60m annually,” he said.

More recently, Turkish Cypriot electricity workers’ trade union El-Sen leader Ahmet Tugcu had said that while a cable connecting Turkey and Cyprus would be the most economically feasible way of interconnecting Cyprus to Europe’s electricity system, he had seen a report compiled by Turkey’s energy ministry declaring the project “politically impossible”.

He said that the report had been prepared in 2024, but that it had been “hidden from the public”.

Meetings on the matter with Entso-E, he said, ended with the conclusion that for such a project to be completed and integrated into the European grid, Turkey’s transmission system operator, Teias, would have to reach a formal agreement with the Republic of Cyprus’ TSO.

“It was clearly indicated that if Teias applied [to Entso-E] unilaterally, it would not be considered without an agreement with [the Republic of Cyprus’ TSO], which is a member of Entso-E. Therefore, the statements made thereafter amounted to misinforming the public” he said.