The community leaders of four Limassol communities – Episkopi, Erimi, Kolossi and Kantou- threatened to stop paying electricity bills, citing frequent power cuts in their areas.
The four leaders are to meet next week with Electricity Authority (EAC) chairman, Andreas Marangos, to discuss the problem.
According to Episkopi community leader Lefkios Prodromou, frequent power cuts are a very common problem in the area.
“The slightest bit of lightning is enough to cause a power cut. The community has been inconvenienced by this for many years,” Prodromou told the Cyprus Mail.
On Thursday and last Saturday, the area went without electricity for around five hours each time, he said.
“They will force us to stop paying our electricity bills,” Prodromou said.
The power cuts affect not only households but also many businesses, he said, and many members of the four communities are enraged by this and threatening to stop paying their electricity bills.
He added that even though the problem has existed for many years nothing has been done by the EAC to address it.
“We experience power cuts not only when the weather conditions are bad. We have had problems even when the weather is fine,” Prodromou said.
He added that even though he sent two letters last year to the EAC pointing out the problem, there was no response. The same inaction on behalf of the utility, he said, was experienced by the community leader of neighbouring Erimi, who also sent letters to the EAC on the same issue.
“It is unacceptable to experience six to seven power cuts in a month,” he said.
EAC spokeswoman, Christina Papadopoulou admitted that there have been since last November to-date five power cuts due to damage caused by bad weather, and two scheduled ones for maintenance. She added that the claims of the community leaders that this is a recurring phenomenon will be discussed next week in their meeting with Marangos.
Papadopoulou said that there is intense thunderstorm activity in that area and that this is what caused the two latest power cuts, last Sunday and on Thursday. She added that it took the EAC crew several hours to restore damage on Thursday due to bad weather conditions and that they had to patrol the area in the dark to inspect the problem.
She denied claims that the grid in the area is faulty.
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