Parliament passes law on compensation for residential solar power surpluses

On March 26, the Cyprus House of Representatives unanimously passed an urgent bill introduced by DIKO MP Michalis Giakoumis to address the zeroing of unused electricity credits from residential net metering systems. Previously, energy surpluses were erased every 36 months without compensation to consumers. The new legislation mandates the Council of Ministers to establish a framework for compensating these surpluses, potentially through direct payments or credits on electricity bills. While the law avoids naming a specific funding body to prevent constitutional challenges, it includes a clause explicitly prohibiting the passing of costs onto other consumers. The Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) spokesperson, Christina Papadopoulou, has stated the organization is unwilling to fund these payments from its own budget. Fanos Karantonis, head of the RES Companies Association, warned that if the EAC were forced to pay, costs would likely be shifted to non-net-metering consumers. Business consultant Christos Tsingis noted that based on current CERA (RAEK) decisions, surplus values could be calculated at approximately 11 cents per kilowatt-hour.