A total of €50 million to install electricity storage systems at three designated sites across the island, will be spent this year by the Transmission System Operator (TSO), MPs heard on Monday.

Parliamentarians were reviewing the TSO’s budget for fiscal year 2026, which comes to €67.3 million.

Using electricity storage systems – arrays of batteries housed in containers – is intended to reduce interruptions to domestic and commercial photovoltaics and improve the overall operation of the grid.

Of the €50 million allocated to storage systems, €49 million comes from an EU grant.

TSO official Costas Mesimeris told MPs that tenders to procure the systems have been launched, and that they are “close” to awarding the contracts.

The actual awarding of the contracts will take place once the TSO budget gets the nod from the House plenum.

“We hope to sign the contracts in March,” Mesimeris said.

The project is expected to take eight months from the date of the awarding of the contract.

“For sure we won’t make it this summer, so we’re trying to make it by the winter of 2026, which is realistically feasible.”

The storage systems will be located next to substations of the Electricity Authority. One will be located in Paphos, the second in Athalassa, and the third in Larnaca.

Due to grid instability from excess, low-demand energy, the TSO has been disconnecting solar, causing significant financial losses for users. The TSO uses specialised software to monitor and calculate in real time how much renewable energy can be safely fed into the national grid. If production exceeds safety levels, curtailments are ordered, first affecting large-scale solar farms before moving to smaller residential systems.

Homeowners have reported multiple shutdowns, with some experiencing up to eight in a single month.

As of January this year, the Photovoltaics for All subsidy has ended, and traditional net metering is no longer available for new applicants, marking a shift toward self-consumption and battery storage.