The rollout of smart electricity meters is continuing across Cyprus in January, with the electricity authority (EAC) on Friday announcing the list of neighbourhoods which are to have smart meters installed in January.

In the Nicosia district, the rollout of smart meters will be focused on the suburb of Strovolos, with installation work to take place on Strovolos Avenue, Grivas Digenis Avenue, Ayios Prokopios Avenue, and Archangelos Michael Avenue.

In the Limassol district, installation work will take place on Archbishop Leontios Avenue and on Makarios Avenue, as well as on Machaira Monastery Street, Major Poulios Street, Demosthenos Mitsis Street, Navarino Street, Gladstone Street, Ayia Zoni Street, and Thessaloniki Street.

In the Larnaca district, installation work will take place in the coastal areas of the town of Larnaca, of the suburbs of Livadia and Oroklini, and of the village of Pyla, focused on the Dhekelia road.

In the Famagusta district, work will take place n both sides of Paralimni’s Protaras Avenue near the Ayia Varvara church, in the Kapparis beach area between the Ayia Triada roundabout and Konstantinos Karamanlis Street, and on the road between Protaras and Cape Greco between Protaras Avenue and Prophitis Elias.

In the Paphos district, work will take place on both sides of Tombs of the Kings Avenue, between Apostolos Pavlos Avenue and the municipal boundary of Chlorakas.

The installation comes after the EAC and he Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (Cyta) had in 2024 signed a contract for the installation of and subsequent operation of smart meters across Cyprus.

The contract foresees the installation of a total of 400,000 smart meters by the end of June next year, effectively working out at a cost of €125 per smart meter.

The installation of smart meters had been hit by various delays in recent years, but the government had no choice but to continue working towards their eventual installation, as it is one of the European Commission’s requirements for access to wider recovery and resilience funds.

The government had put out its most recent tender for the meters’ installation earlier in 2024, with three companies, Logicom, NewCytech Business Solutions, and Cyta, all bidding for the tender.

Cyta’s bid was the most expensive of the three, at €50 million, with Logicom proposing a total cost of €33.7m and NewCytech Business Solutions €37.6m, but the EAC deemed Cyta’s offering the most suitable.

An administrative court had then found that Cyta were ineligible to provide the service as it did not fall within the scope of their business. This setback had then placed the European Commission’s funds in jeopardy, with Cyprus having looked set to lose up to €35m in grants if at least 50,000 smart meters had not been installed by the end of 2024.

This, in turn, swung parliament into action, with a law being passed in May 2024 to allow Cyta to take the contract on.

In short, parliament amended the telecommunications law to allow Cyta to engage in “projects and activities related to making use of its assets, its technical or commercial capabilities, its facilities, its services and its technical know-how in the event such activities are deemed necessary and beneficial to the organisation.”