Turkey promoting its alternative to Greece-Cyprus power cable

Turkey reportedly submitted a project to ENTSO-E for a submarine interconnection with the ethnic Turkish entity in northern Cyprus. The government in Ankara is counting on delays in work on the Great Sea Interconnector to open space for its alternative.

Last month Turkish warships intercepted an Italian vessel examining the seabed. It was scanning the route for the Great Sea Interconnector, a project to link the electricity transmission grids of Greece (through Crete), Cyprus and Israel. At the same time, Turkey is separately working on an alternative.

It is eager to place its own submarine cable and connect with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, an entity that only the government in Ankara recognizes.

Electric geostrategic race to island

The division of Cyprus and lack of cooperation between the two communities risk exacerbating issues from renewables deployment to water supply. There is also a dispute between Greece and the Cypriot Greek Republic of Cyprus that is holding back the Great Sea Interconnector. Namely, among other obstacles, the two governments are at odds over the capital structure and how the expenditures would be shared.

Even the cabinet in Nicosia doesn’t seem to have a unified stance on the whole idea. The Greece-Cyprus segment won a whopping EUR 657 million grant from the European Commission as a project of common interest or PCI.

All the setbacks have brought the entire interconnector into question. Turkey apparently sees it as an opportunity to promote its cable and firm its presence in the northern Cypriot entity. The matter has geostrategic significance, especially as Israel is involved.

One-way link wouldn’t cut it

News reports have lately emerged that Turkey, an observer member of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), unofficially notified the international body of its project. There were also rumors earlier in the media that ENTSO-E already rejected such a proposal.

The Cypriot Turkish entity is in a legal vacuum. Turkey could therefore only establish a system isolated from the national grid, and send electricity to the island. But its project, under development for several years, is for a two-way interconnection.

Cyprus is the only non-interconnected European Union member state. The increase in the share of wind and solar power is boosting the swings in output. Sudden jumps burden the grid, so much of the capacity is temporarily disconnected. Conversely, weather-induced drops in production jeopardize the security of power supply.

A two-directional link would ease balancing and enable the integration of more renewables.

The Italian buoy-laying ship, Ievoli Relume, is scheduled to continue the survey in September. It is up to prime ministers and top diplomats to sort it out.