Last Friday, November 15, all eyes were set on the annual Energy Symposium in Nicosia which once again was jointly organised by the IENE and its partner in Cyprus, FMW- Financial Media Way. An annual event,now in its 12 th edition,which attracts wide media attention and high participation by energy professionals from Cyprus and Greece. This year the Symposium attracted some 160 delegates, including 25 speakers, and covered a broad spectrum of subjects.
Last Friday, November 15, all eyes were set on the annual Energy Symposium in Nicosia which once again was jointly organised by the IENE and its partner in Cyprus, FMW- Financial Media Way. An annual event,now in its 12 th edition,which attracts wide media attention and high participation by energy professionals from Cyprus and Greece. This year the Symposium attracted some 160 delegates, including 25 speakers, and covered a broad spectrum of subjects. These ranged from energy policy and regulation, hydrocarbon exploration and production, natural gas imports via LNG, the electricity interconnection with Greece and Israel,renewable energy sources and electricity market competition as well as energy efficiency improvement in buildings,businesses and industry. ( In order to see the full conference programme and other details go to www.cyprusenergysymposium.com)
In his opening speech the President of Cyprus, HE Mr.Nikos Christodoulides left no room for doubt on the new turn of things as the island is stepping up its efforts in a number of fronts. The end scope being, as he stressed, to be able to diversify the soonest possible the island’s energy mix through the addition of imported LNG -ultimately to come from Cyprus’s own extensive hydrocarbon resources- and the electricity interconnections with Greece,through Crete,and Israel. Such essential moves, underlined the President, will not only bolster the nation’s energy security, which has the highest degree of energy dependency in the EU, but will also help lessen its high emissions while facilitating competition in the electricity market and the improvement in consumer prices.
As it became obvious from the follow up addresses by the chairperson of the Parliament Ms.Anitta Demetriou and the Minister of Energy and Industry Mr. George Papanastasiou and other senior government officials a new sense of urgency has taken hold across the energy sector impacting decisions and setting strict timetables. A big burden falls upon the Transmission System Operator whose CEO, Stavros Stavrinos is in charge of the international electricity interconnections programme and of the upgrading of the island’s electricity transmission system. On his part the Chairman & CEO of Greece’s Independent Transmission Operator (IPTO) Mr.Manousos Manousakis send a strong message of confidence reporting on the solid achievements and accomplishments in the construction so far, of the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) project which will eventually link the electricity the European electricity system to those in Cyprus and Israel.
Several other addresses, interventions and presentations followed which covered hydrocarbon exploration and production, the internal electricity market operation, the rapid advance of renewables, especially solar photovoltaics,the problems with curtailments, plans for hydrogen applications and the constant efforts to improve energy efficiency in the various facets of Cyprus’s energy system.
More on the above will be reported in due course in a series of articles at IENE.eu. but also through the special microsite,currently under construction, which will include all presentations and the accompanied visual material ( photos and video)
