Cyprus’s competition regulator has effectively blocked a partnership between telecoms operator Cyta and the state power company (EAC) to sell renewable energy, warning such a deal would destroy the open market.
“We would be talking about another game, not an open market,” a Competition Commission representative told the parliamentary Finance Committee on Monday during heated debate over legislation allowing Cyta to enter the energy business.
The intervention sets up a clash between the regulator’s insistence on competition and Cyta’s push to sell green electricity to vulnerable households and apartment residents who cannot install their own solar panels.
EAC chair Giorgos Petrou warned the move will cost the state power company 5,000 household customers and drive up costs for everyone else as expenses get spread across fewer consumers.
Union representatives attacked the plan even more forcefully. “What does the state want to do through Cyta that EAC cannot do?” asked Kyriakos Tafounas, representing all EAC union organisations.
He accused the government of double standards, noting the state has repeatedly forced EAC to cut electricity prices to support the economy “despite being at the expense of investments and the organisation’s robustness, whilst similar interventions were not made to the private sector”.
Tafounas also claimed the energy regulator CERA handed out licences to private solar park developers who then approached Cyta to buy their output. He called the EAC president’s invitation to cooperate with Cyta “unacceptable” and urged parliament to reject the bill.
Cyta chair Maria Tsiakka pushed back, insisting the telecoms operator poses no threat to either EAC or private competitors.
“I cannot imagine this small contribution from Cyta affects EAC,” she said. “We will follow all CERA provisions and will ask for licences without deviation, equally. We don’t compete with the private sector either. They can sell us energy.”
Cyta has secured 6% of the renewables quota and will eventually develop its own renewable sources or partner with others, Tsiakka said. When renewables fall short, the operator will buy conventional energy from EAC.
She warned that blocking the bill would delay infrastructure development needed “to enter a very small part of the market,” and assured MPs that Cyta has made no agreements with private companies to purchase energy.
EAC will inevitably lose market share but Cyta is not responsible for this broader trend, Tsiakka said.
The Competition Commission said new market entrants will strengthen competition, innovation and consumer choice in the green transition, but warned against practices that could distort competition.
CERA struck a neutral tone, saying every market initiative is welcome but noting that “networks belong to EAC, which has a dominant position and any work should be examined based on terms and conditions of cooperation”.
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