President of the technical chamber Etek on Thursday said that the energy minister’s concerns about the opening up of the electricity market were reasonable and justified.

In a written statement, Konstantinos Constantis said nothing had happened since 2022 when Etek first raised the same concerns with the energy regulator Cera.

At the end of last month, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou said he was unsure whether the opening of Cyprus’ electricity grid to private companies would lower people’s electricity bills.

He said that in large electricity markets, prices typically remain stable when private first companies are allowed to enter, with them then falling later on “due to competition”.

“In a smaller market, which has not been tested often, we will see along the way,” he said, adding that his ministry can intervene “if we see that things are going in the wrong direction”.

Cyprus’ energy market is due to open up to private companies on September 15, with October 1 earmarked as “the first day of trading”.

Constantis, in his statement also referred to the “limitations and data” of Cyprus’ small and isolated electricity system and questioned whether it would lead to more affordable electricity prices for households and small and medium-sized businesses.

He said electricity was obviously a significant cost factor for products and services. The price of electricity, he added, “significantly affects the well-being of citizens and the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises”.

Etek has laid out its positions in 2022 in a multi-page memo to Cera and to the former minister of energy.

Constantis said he himself had stated publicly the same year that that his assessment was that electricity prices would rise with the opening of the market and at least in the short-to medium term there would be no reduction in prices.

“Since then, nothing substantial has changed to allay the concerns raised. Instead, we have seen the EU discuss at length the weaknesses of the model, which has a basic philosophy of compensating all bidders or producers at the most expensive price,” Constantis said.

The EU discussions took place on the basis of a huge interconnected European electricity market with a multitude of power generation technologies, in contrast to the isolated, small-volume and technology-limited electricity market of Cyprus.”

The open market posits that during the changeover, energy producers and suppliers will enter an environment which is essentially a stock market, in which every half hour, quotes will be made, and electricity can be bought.

In theory, suppliers, depending on how good a price they achieve, will then sell to consumers and thus enter constant competition. Consumers will then be able to find it easy to switch from one company to another, ensuring a better price, Papanastasiou has previously said.