The price of electricity will be determined automatically according to the change in the price of fuel oil in a new regulation announced by TRNC PM Omer Kalyoncu in the Council of Ministers meeting.

“The price of electricity will automatically be determined by the price of fuel just as the price of fuel oil is determined according to the rise and fall of the price of oil in international markets” said the PM.

Kalyoncu also announced that a decision had been taken to reduce fixed rates as well as fees to connect or disconnect subscriptions. He added that subscribers opting for electronic bills will also be able to benefit from a discount.

“The fee for connecting and disconnecting power has been lowered from 90TL to 20TL and a 5TL discount has been introduced to fixed rates, lowering the price from 16.95TL to 12TL.

Meanwhile, the TC Electricity Authority KIB-TEK issued a statement clarifying the new regulation.

According to KIB-TEK fluctuations in the foreign exchange rates will not be directly reflected onto electricity prices.

A statement from the authority said that fuel only made up 42% of the total costs and in the event of a rise or fall in the foreign exchange rate, the reflection onto the prices would only be 4.2% in a 10% margin.

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KIB-TEK director Salih Gurkan, has said that the electricity authority aims to complete the connection of the electricity grids between the north and the south of the island by 2016.

Gurkan explained that the grids will be linked at two points, one at Guzelyurt (Morphou) and the other at the Nicosia suburb of Haspolat (Mia Milia).

He noted that they aim to complete the works for the Haspolat line at the beginning of September, following that, there will be inspections to test the technical quality.

Gurkan also said that they will be given support from a private company experienced in this work, adding that according to the report results, they will make adjustments and improvements.

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KIB-TEK electricity authority has released a statement recently saying that some of their customers have been receiving SMS messages from a 5875 number which does not belong to KIB-TEK.

The statement said that the number 5875 did not belong to the board; the message tells customers that anyone who requires a written bill will have to pay extra. KIB-TEK said that this was untrue and the messages were not sent by KIB-TEK; they were misleading with incorrect information and called on customers disregard this message.

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The new smart meters introduced by the Cyprus Turkish Electricity Authority (KIB-TEK) have become operational as of Monday, the Director of KIB-TEK Mehmet Salih Gürkan has announced.

Speaking on BRT, Mr. Gürkan said that as of January 2016, all monitoring and billing of electricity consumption of consumers will be done automatically.

The smart meters also allow KIB-TEK to cut off power supply to customers who have unpaid electricity balances over 469 Turkish Liras.

“The main difference in this new system is that the electricity supply will be automatically cut off by the system and not by the authority staff” Gürkan said.

He also added that any overdue electricity bills of state institutions that pass 90 days will also be automatically cut.

The new system aims to reduce costs.

All 160 thousand subscribers will have their current electricity meters replaced by smart meters by the end of the year. Some buildings have already has theirs replaced.

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KIB-TEK has revealed the total amount of money you can owe to the power authority without having your electricity cut off. As long as this threshold is maintained, your power can never be cut off, though it is usually better to clear your outstanding bills on time to avoid unhappy circumstances.

The Power company said that consumers with outstanding bills of 469TL and over will have their electricity cut off automatically. Invariably if you owe below 469TL, your electricity will not be cut off

The electricity authority has been implementing a new Automatic Meter Management system. KIB-TEK director Mehmet Salih Gurkan said that with the new system, the new meters could be managed remotely. However, not all meters had been changed he noted, and personnel were still needed for meter reading, disconnecting and reconnecting meters.

Gurkan said that with the new meters, those who had unpaid electricity bills or were behind in paying their instalments would see their electricity cut off. To reconnect the power would cost an extra 89.32TL he said.

Disconnections in those cases would begin soon, as early as next week he said calling on consumers to make the necessary arrangements in order not to be without electricity.

Regarding speculative reports of possible price hikes in electricity bills. PM Kalyoncu of TRNC Council of Ministers refuted the claims as gossip and said the allegations that ‘a lot of people had been employed to the electricity department therefore price increases will be made to cover that’ was a bad approach. He said the price increases are based on petrol swings and the rate of exchange on the dollar.

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KIB-TEK has announced that the GSM messages the public has been receiving are not a hoax and users should respond to the SMS message they have received.

The SMS reads in part "...For every electricity meter registered on our consumers name, we kindly ask them to send us....Signed: Electricity Authority of Northern Cyprus"

KIB-TEK said that users should start by responding to the SMS messages in order not to encounter any difficulties later.

The authorities said that responding to the number ‘9898’ was enough. An example of how the reply should look is given: “123784 *00276159 03507 Bahtiyar Duran bahtiyarduran@yahoo.com”.

KIB-TEK General manager Mehmet S. Gurkan in a written statement said with the completion of the remote electronic meter project at the end of the year, KIB-TEK will be a more modern unit. With the completion of the project, meter reading and distribution of electricity bills will become less and less necessary thus reducing the cost to the consumer as well. Those who would still wish to receive a bill will have to inform the authorities by July 31st.

Those who do not inform by this date will receive their bills either by SMS or by electronic post or both.

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KIB-TEK faces shut down if the TRNC government does not intervene, Ismet Akim, chairman of the administrative council of KIB-TEK has said.

State-run KIB-TEK loses 60 million Turkish liras every two months because of the increase in the price of fuel. In statements to ‘Kibris’, Akim noted: “We have lost 60 million TL in two months. If the government does not take our proposals into consideration, we will shut down the institution by the end of the year”.

Akim said that they have decreased their prices but the fuel cost, which had been 600 US dollars per ton in January, went up to 1,200 US dollars today. He noted that they are losing money every month and criticised Prime Minister, Ozkan Yorgancioglu, adding that “if a problem exists here, the prime minister should solve it”.

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