A lightning strike was due to yesterday's major damage to the line of the Cyprus Electricity Authority, which supplies electricity to the entire free Province of Famagusta, said EAC Spokesman Costas Gavriilidis.
Speaking at a press conference on the power outage in Sotira but the rest of the free area of Famagusta that took place on Friday, as well as the response of the EAC to the problems that arose due to the extreme weather events of recent days, Mr. Gavriilidis said that damage occurred shortly before 11:00 and was repaired around 12:30, an hour and a half later.
As he said, the damage concerned the transmission line that supplies the whole free Province of Famagusta, noting that the EAC takes care of and constructs these lines, so that they are dual circuit and in case of failure in one circuit there is no problem, because the supply can be repaired by the other circuit, which will not be damaged.
"It was certainly something that could not be predicted or avoided. Probably due to the phone calls we received, a lightning strike in the area. "But, I repeat, the interruption lasted only an hour and a half," he said.
Referring further to the issue of holidays, Mr. Gavriilidis said that the commitment of the EAC is that as an Organization it will continue to make every effort, as it has been doing all these years, so that the supply is restored as soon as possible.
He added that "the EAC is not going to think about either trouble or costs, it is not going to take into account the advanced time or the weather conditions and its crews will remain at the scene of the damage, as long as there is the slightest hope to repair the damage." .
Regarding Thursday night, he said that the EAC did not face any particular difficulties, noting that there were problems only in two overhead lines of the Limassol District, which supply the villages of Agios Pavlos and Agios Konstantinos and the villages of Odos and Melini.
"In both cases there was access for the EAC crews and despite the fact that the weather conditions were difficult and the time was advanced we managed to restore the supply in both cases. "So there was no suffering for the people," he said.
However, in a journalist's remark that there were power outages, not only due to a fault, but also due to the fact that the EAC cut off electricity supply from unpaid bills, Mr. Gavriilidis said that this issue will be considered by the EAC Board of Directors at its meeting. next Tuesday.
He added that it has always been the EAC's policy not to cut off the non-payment provision to household consumers on Christmas days.