GSI Moves Toward Investment Decision with Cyprus-Israel Filing

The Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) has taken another step toward implementation after Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO or DEDDIE) submitted an investment request to the energy regulators of Cyprus and Israel for the project’s Cyprus-Israel section, setting in motion a process for determining how the cross-border investment costs will be allocated.

The filing follows completion of an updated cost-benefit analysis and a proposal for cross-border cost allocation, while it comes about a week after French investment group Meridiam agreed to become the majority shareholder in the GSI company for the Greece-Cyprus section. The developments are intended to give renewed momentum to a project that has faced financing, regulatory and geopolitical hurdles.

Under EU rules governing Projects of Common Interest, an investment request is submitted when a project has reached sufficient maturity and is expected to be ready to enter construction within 36 months. The request is accompanied by a project-specific cost-benefit analysis, a business plan assessing financial viability and, where applicable, a proposal for allocating costs between countries. The relevant national regulators then have up to 6 months to reach a