The grid is switching off your solar.
On a bright day in April, somewhere around noon, thousands of solar systems across Cyprus quietly stop. Nobody is told, nothing appears on a bill, and an hour or two later they start again.
The island is making more solar at midday than it can use, so the grid operator switches some of it off. Since 2025 that has reached homes on a large scale. If you have panels, or you are thinking about them, this is the part of the picture that has changed fastest and is discussed least.
How much solar is being switched off
In 2022, 3.3% of renewable output in Cyprus was curtailed. In 2023 it was 13.4%, and in 2024 it was 29%.1 In 2025 the grid switched off 47% of the island's solar output.2 In the first five months of 2026 curtailment passed 65%.3
These are measured figures, from the grid operator's own dispatch data.
How much solar the grid switched off, by year
Share of solar output switched off in Cyprus
Why it happens
Cyprus is an island, and its grid is an island too. There is no cable to a neighbour to send a surplus down, and almost nothing to store it in. What the island makes, the island has to use in that moment.
At midday in spring and autumn, solar output is high and demand is low, because few homes are running air conditioning. The grid has more electricity than the island needs, so solar is switched off.
The worst days are the mild, sunny ones, and in 2025 the worst month of all was March.2
The same home in April and July
Average day, typical Nicosia home with 2 kW of panels on a standard connection, Switch model
April, with a cut-off
July, no cut-off
It now reaches homes
Until 2024, curtailment mostly hit the large solar parks. It now reaches households.
Home systems are switched off in rotating groups, with no warning and no compensation.4 Between 4 April and 4 May 2026, groups were cut off 15 to 17 times each, roughly every other day.4
The amount cut from homes and small systems grew about twenty-fold in a year, from 1,565 MWh in 2024 to 30,180 MWh in 2025. In the first five months of 2026 it reached 46,687 MWh, more than in the whole of 2025.3
Homes are still a small share of the total. About a tenth of the solar switched off in 2025 came from homes, and the large parks carried the rest.2
You will not get a letter about it. On the days it happens your panels simply stop, the house goes back to buying, and nothing on the bill explains the difference.
What it costs you
Under net billing, every unit your panels make is worth one of four things.
| What happens to a unit your panels make | What it is worth |
|---|---|
| Used in your home as it is made | 31.9c saved |
| Sent to the grid | Almost 31.9c. The surplus is credited at 11c |
| Switched off by the grid | Nothing |
| Stored in a battery, used after dark | 31.9c saved |
A unit you send to the grid is netted against a unit you buy on the same bill, so it is worth almost as much. Only the surplus at the end of the bill is credited, at 11c a unit in every month of 2026 up to September. On Tariff 01, a unit you buy cost 31.9c on the bills of October 2026. How net billing works →
Curtailment moves units into the nothing row.
Homes in Cyprus are curtailed by a signal to a receiver of EAC's Distribution System Operator (DSO) in the meter box, sent either through the power cables (ripple control) or over a mobile network. On a standard connection, the signal switches the whole system off, battery included, and a cut-off costs you twice.3, 5
What reduces it
Use more of your solar as you make it. Run the washing machine, dishwasher, water heater and pool pump in the middle of the day. If your bill often ends in surplus, solar you use as it is made is worth more, because the surplus is credited at only 11c a unit.
Size the system to what your home uses. Under net metering, a bigger system was always better. Under net billing, the extra output of an oversized system is credited at 11c and lost if you have not used it by the yearly clearance. On the days the grid switches it off you get nothing. A system matched to what you actually use pays back faster.
Ask for occasional zero export. With this set-up, a curtailment signal stops your export while your home keeps running on its own solar and the battery keeps charging. You apply to the DSO in writing, and you pay for the export controller and the extra receiver.5 The three ways to connect and what each does in a cut-off →
A battery only helps during cut-offs with occasional zero export. Then, on cut-off days your home keeps its own solar, and the midday surplus goes into the battery for the evening instead of being lost. In the DSO's standard wiring diagrams the cut-off switch sits between the inverter and the house, so a cut-off disconnects both the solar and the battery.5
What happens next
Cyprus is building grid-scale storage. Contracts for the first 120 MW of batteries, run by the transmission system operator, were signed in June 2026, and they are expected to start working in summer 2027.6
120 MW is a start. Storage projects totalling about 925 MW have applied to connect.6 Nobody has published how much the first batteries will reduce curtailment for homes, and anyone who tells you the problem is about to be solved is guessing.
See your own numbers
The calculator's estimate shows how much of your solar the grid would switch off, and how much a battery would keep. It takes less than a minute and uses today's EAC electricity tariffs.
Keep reading
If you install solar without a battery in a congested area, you may lose more than half of its output.
In a congested area, new solar usually connects only if it never sends energy to the grid. In the example we worked out, a home without a battery loses 53.6% of its output. See how much the same home saves with a battery.
SolarIf your solar panels send energy to the grid, a battery does not save you more today.
If your solar panels send energy to the grid, under EAC's current Net Billing contract a battery does not save you more. See the calculator's figures and when a battery is worth considering.
SolarWith occasional zero export, you can use the power from your solar panels on curtailment days too.
With occasional zero export, a curtailment first stops only your export, and your home can keep using its own solar. You apply in writing to EAC's DSO and pay for the equipment; the DSO can still cut production off.
References
- TSOC dispatch data analysed by CyprusGrid, reported by pv magazine, 14 February 2025. Figures for 2022 to 2024 cover all renewables. Read the article
- pv magazine, 13 January 2026, citing CyprusGrid: 47.44% of solar and biogas generation curtailed in 2025, March the worst month, residential PV 10% of curtailed energy. Read the article
- pv magazine, 15 June 2026, citing CyprusGrid: over 65% of potential solar generation curtailed in January to May 2026, household and small-scale curtailment figures, and ripple control. Read the article
- Cyprus Mail, 12 May 2026, on household cut-offs and zero export. Read the article. Cyprus Mail, 30 August 2026, on warning and compensation. Read the article
- EAC's DSO, Technical guide for connecting storage systems, edition 2026.3 (15 July 2026), on how the cut-off switch is wired and on occasional zero export. EAC (PDF, in Greek)
- Cyprus Mail, 23 June 2026, on the first storage contracts and applications. Read the article. Cyprus Mail, 12 July 2026. Read the article
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This article is provided for information only and is not financial advice. Figures are estimates based on published EAC tariffs and typical household patterns; your own result will differ. Switch is not responsible for decisions made in reliance on it.