Solar Self-Consumption in Cyprus: Where the Rules Are Hiding

Putting panels on a roof in Cyprus used to be a question about a subsidy scheme. It is now a question about a regulatory framework, and the difference matters, because a scheme is discretionary and a framework confers rights.

The rights come from two statutes. Section 38(1) of the Promotion and Encouragement of the Use of Renewable Energy Sources Law, Law 107(I)/2022, gives consumers the right to act as renewable self-consumers, individually or through aggregators, without being subjected to discriminatory or disproportionately burdensome procedures. Sections 9 and 122 of the Electricity Market Regulation Laws, Law 130(I)/2021, give the regulator the power to put that into effect.

Where the rules actually live

They are not in the statutes. They are in two regulatory decisions of the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority, published as statutory instruments:

• Regulatory Decision 02/2024, the Regulatory Framework for the Activity of Active Customers and Renewable Energy Self-Consumers, published as ΚΔΠ 375/2024 in the Official Gazette, Supplement III(I), issue 5907 of 15 November 2024
• Regulatory Decision 01/2025, the amending decision, published as ΚΔΠ 243/2025 in issue 5961 of 1 August 2025

The amending decision says how the two are to be read: together, and cited as Regulatory Decisions 02/2024 and 01/2025. Reading the 2024 framework on its own gives an incomplete answer.

This is why energy questions in Cyprus are answered badly so often. The operative rules sit in instruments that are not in the statute books and are not indexed with the legislation, and a reader who stops at the Law finds only the power to make them.

Two roles, not one

The framework distinguishes the active customer from the renewable energy self-consumer, and applies to both. They participate in the electricity market, and the framework requires them to apply the Market Rules and the transmission and distribution rules rather than sitting outside them.

The framework also establishes registers of active customers and of renewable energy self-consumers.

Acting jointly means the same building

Self-consumers may act jointly, which is the arrangement most owners in an apartment block or a mixed-use development want. The framework defines the geographical proximity that permits it, and the definition is short and hard: geographical proximity means the boundaries of the same building.

That single sentence disposes of a great many schemes. Two adjacent buildings under common ownership are not within it. A development of separate blocks is not within it. Where the parties want to share generation across more than one building, the arrangement has to be built on something other than joint self-consumption, and the framework contemplates virtual offsetting of electricity accounts separately.

The framework also requires a responsible representative to be designated for those acting jointly, and calls on the Distribution System Operator to draw up a guide.

The right not to be curtailed

The most valuable provision for anyone sizing an installation is the one the 2025 amendment was made to implement.

Section 38(2)(d) of Law 107(I)/2022 provides that renewable self-consumers who have the technical capability of zero injection of energy into the network have the right that the electricity they produce and which remains within their own installations is not curtailed in cases where curtailment is applied for reasons of securing the system.

Read that against how curtailment is usually experienced. When the network is constrained, generation is cut. A self-consumer who can demonstrate zero injection is asking to keep running on its own power while exporting nothing, and the provision says that consumption cannot be cut for a network reason that its own generation is not contributing to.

Whether an installation qualifies is an engineering question before it is a legal one, and the answer is designed in rather than argued afterwards.

Capacity limits, and the schemes that came before

The framework contemplates that limits may be set on the maximum capacity of a generating installation, with the Distribution System Operator submitting a proposal on them. Anyone sizing a project on the assumption that capacity is a matter for the owner alone should check where that stands at the time.

Existing offsetting schemes are not swept away. The framework provides that they continue to apply their own terms, so an installation already operating under a net metering arrangement is governed by that arrangement rather than by the new framework by default. Which regime an installation is in is therefore a question of fact about when and under what it was connected.

What sits alongside it

Three further regulatory decisions of the same period bear on the same projects: Regulatory Decision 03/2024 on demand response through aggregation, ΚΔΠ 376/2024; Regulatory Decision 04/2024 on citizen energy communities and renewable energy communities, ΚΔΠ 377/2024; and Regulatory Decision 02/2025 on flexible connection agreements to the transmission and distribution systems, ΚΔΠ 260/2025.

The last of those is the one to look at where a connection is refused or offered on conditions, because a flexible connection is the alternative to being told there is no capacity.

What to send us

Send the connection application and any response from the operator, the single line diagram and the proposed capacity, the ownership position of the roof or the land, and if more than one owner is involved, the building. The first question is which regime the installation falls into, because the framework, an existing offsetting scheme and an energy community are three different answers with three different sets of rules.

Questions we are asked

Related reading

This work sits within our energy practice. The permitting and grid sequence for a larger project is set out in developing a solar project in Cyprus, and the licensing and market background in energy projects in Cyprus. For charging points rather than generation, see installing electric vehicle charging points.

This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws and their application can change, and individual circumstances differ. For advice on your own matter, contact Klitos Platis at klitos@kleanthousplatis.com or telephone +357 22 680 330.

Klitos Platis

Advocate, Partner

Kleanthous & Platis LLC, Nicosia · Published 16 August 2026