Residents woke up to darkness on Friday morning as massive outage paralyze north Cyprus

Northern Cyprus woke up to a large-scale power outage on Friday after an early-morning explosion at the Güzelyurt transformer station left the country without electricity.

According to the Cyprus Turkish Electricity Authority (KIBTEK), the blast caused the shutdown of power plants and triggered a system-wide lockout, halting electricity production entirely. KIBTEK Director Dalman Aydın told BRT that the fault at the Güzelyurt facility had taken power stations offline, but assured that repair work was underway and electricity was expected to be restored to the grid shortly.

Union Blames Poor Infrastructure
The Cyprus Turkish Electricity Authority Workers’ Union (El-Sen) criticized the state of the country’s energy infrastructure. El-Sen President Ahmet Tuğcu remarked that while the world had moved on to silicone insulators, authorities were importing special paint from the United States to coat outdated glass insulators.

“Guess which company is bringing it? With AKSA’s 25-year-old machines and the neglected capacity at Teknecik, this is the best you can expect when the grid takes a hit. Happy Friday…” Tuğcu wrote on social media.

Water Supply Also Disrupted
Girne Mayor Murat Şenkul warned that the power outage had disrupted the city’s water supply, with municipal reservoirs currently receiving only about 5% of their usual levels.

In a statement on social media, Şenkul said both the “Turkey Water” supplied from Geçitköy and the “local water” from wells were affected. He cautioned that, based on previous incidents, it could take 24–48 hours for water supply to return to normal.

“The less the network is drained, the sooner the problem can be resolved. Please use water only for urgent needs,” Şenkul urged residents, noting that the same principle applied across the country.

The cause of the transformer explosion remains under investigation.