Industry Electricity Headquarters Nicosia Founded 1952 Type of business Public utility | Area served Cyprus Revenue 630.5 million EUR (2015) Number of employees 1,999 Net income 60.38 million EUR (2015) | |
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Website Electricity Authority of Cyprus | ||
Electricity authority of cyprus advertisement
The Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) (Greek: Αρχή Ηλεκτρισμού Κύπρου (ΑΗΚ)) was founded in 1952 by the British colonial government. The 28 private electricity companies of the time were nationalized and absorbed into the EAC. The Authority never received any subsidies from the government as these have always been prohibited by law. Its head office is located in Strovolos. The EAC currently holds a near monopoly on electricity generation in Cyprus. It operates through three power stations with a total capacity of 1460MW:
The company also distributes electricity produced by five privately held windfarms:
Additionally, individuals, private companies, and the Government own almost 54MW of solar panels and almost 10MW of biofuel installations and the EAC distributes the electricity these produce too.
In 2015, the EAC generated a total of 4,128GWh of electricity consuming 947,226 tonnes of fuel costing €288,632,000. Maximum demand in the areas controlled by the Republic of Cyprus reached 939MW. A total of 2.0GWh of the produced electricity in 2015 valued €240,000 ended up in the area occupied by Turkey and no money could be collected for it.
The Authority served 559,700 customers in 2015, that is 280 per employee, up from 260 in 2014. The electricity sales per employee reached 2.02GWh, up from 1.83GWh in 2014.
Company investments in 2015 on its assets reached €17,721,000.
On 11 July 2011, a total of 98 containers of munitions stored at Evangelos Florakis Naval Base adjacent to Vasilikos Power Station exploded causing extensive damage to the station. To cope with the extended loss of its largest power station, the Authority had to impose rolling blackouts. In 2010, the maximum demand had reached 1,144MW, the highest ever, and an even higher one was expected in 2011.
As a precondition to the accession of Cyprus to the European Union, the local market for electricity generation has been opened to private companies, but so far no private power plants have been built, although four licenses have been granted by Cyprus Energy Regulation Authority. In the meanwhile, the EAC diversified into communication and cable television services in cooperation with a private company.
In 2005, the company was involved in a high profile scandal involving the alleged theft of millions of Cyprus pounds from the employees' pension scheme.