Answering media questions on the sidelines of the fourth annual memorial service of the former President Demetris Christofias in Strovolos, Papanastasiou said that the issue was discussed during his visit to the neighbouring country last Wednesday. “Specifically Israel expressed interest in receiving electricity from various sources in addition to the electricity that is produced in Israel and it was one of the first issues we discussed,” he said, according to CNA.

During the visit, he said, the Cypriot delegation was told that Israel’s electricity deficit is estimated at around 4 to 5 Gigawatts over the next five years. Because Israel’s intention is to use electricity as the prime mover in strengthening its industry, it wants to have an interconnector with Cyprus “because it sees Cyprus as a potential producer of electricity for export”. “And for this reason the issue was discussed strongly, we talked about the issue of the electricity  interconnector and we also talked about natural gas and the connection of the two countries in this respect,” the minister added.

Papanastasiou said that in Cyprus there was always talk of the “gas-to-power” project, which means converting natural gas into electricity, and he also said that excess green energy produced from renewable sources, which at the moment with its ancient grid, is going to waste could also be exported. “We have a lot of other electricity, which we reject in a way, because our grid can’t handle it so with this particular proposal, but also because of our intention to connect the two countries electrically we will make sure that this – essentially – overproduction of green energy in Cyprus is channelled to countries that need it, in addition to conventional production, which will be produced by natural gas,” the minister said.

When asked if there is was timetable for this, Papanastasiou said the Israeli side wishes to speed things up, adding that for this reason technical committees are being formed which will start their work in July. He also said that Israel has more or less nominated its own members to the committees and Cyprus is looking now for the right people to represent the island on these bodies. “Solutions must come very quickly because Israel is in a hurry,” he said.

In talks in Jerusalem on Thursday, it was reported that the two countries have a goal of making significant progress in connecting the two grids ahead of COP28, which begins on November 30 in Dubai. The delegations also discussed cooperation in the development of regional gas infrastructure, such as the ‘Cyprus Gateway’ initiative aiming to transfer natural gas via the island to Europe, including from Israeli offshore reserves.