The Cyprus Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry has confirmed that the country’s current net metering and net billing schemes will end on Dec. 31. A new self-consumption framework, designed by the Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA), will take effect from Jan. 1, 2026.
Net metering now applies to residential PV systems and credits solar generation at the retail rate, while net billing covers commercial and industrial systems credited at the wholesale rate.
These programs have driven significant adoption of rooftop solar, accounting for much of Cyprus’s installed PV capacity. In 2024 alone, the country added 159 MW of new solar capacity, of which 100 MW came from self-consumption systems.
The ministry said the ongoing “Photovoltaics for All” subsidy program – launched in January 2024 with €30 million ($34.7 million) of funding for 2024-25 – will continue as planned, providing loans for the purchase and installation of residential PV systems.
Under the new regime, systems without a signed net metering or billing contract by the end of 2025, as well as those whose current contracts expire after Jan. 1, will transition to the updated framework.
CERA outlined three options for self-consumers: signing a bilateral agreement with an energy retailer, joining an aggregator who sells surplus generation to the market, or choosing not to export excess power to the grid. The duration and terms of bilateral contracts will be determined between the consumer and the retailer.
The reform follows the launch of a fully liberalized electricity market in Cyprus on Oct. 1, ending the state utility EAC’s exclusive role in net metering and billing.
CERA’s announcement provided relief to solar installers who had been uncertain about what would replace the existing schemes.
“The government has made a genuine effort to help households access cheaper electricity,” said Dr. Andreas Procopiou, energy expert and founder of CyprusGrid. “But given Cyprus’s unique challenges – no battery storage, no interconnections with other grids, and heavy reliance on diesel generation – this is currently the only practical way to bring prices down. Still, we urgently need to complement these measures with energy storage solutions to strengthen consumers’ self-sufficiency and the overall resilience of the power system.”
Procopiou said the new market framework remains uncertain and that aggregators are unlikely to integrate their operations with self-consumption schemes in the near term. “It will be a real challenge for them. Cyprus is a very small market, aggregators depend on scale, and the logistics of managing and aggregating thousands of small units are extremely complex.”
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.