Three candidates have submitted offers for a tender being staged by IPTO, Greece’s power grid operator, concerning a deep-sea survey required to develop an underwater interconnection project linking Crete and the Peloponnese.

The University of Athens’s Marine Geology department; the Hellenic Center for Marine Research (HCMR), joined by a private-sector partner; as well as AKTI, a specialized private sector firm, have submitted offers to conduct the deep-sea survey.

The survey is planned to cover the sea region between Neapoli, southern Peloponnese, and the Kissamos Gulf in western Crete as a preliminary step for the installation of a 150 KV underwater cable.

This part of the project represents its small-scale stage. An additonal large-scale interconnection will provide a link to the wider Athens area.

According to energypress sources, two of the three offers have met the tender’s technical requirements while the third, submitted by the University of Athens, was deemed incomplete and needs to be resubmitted as a fuller version within the next five days. Otherwise, it will be excluded from the process.

Then, as the next step, the financial details of these offers will be opened up and the prefered bidder chosen. The winner will be provided 105 days to deliver the deep-sea survey from the day the contract is signed.

Technical details to be provided by the survey will then be included in another tender offering the Crete-Peloponnese interconnection project’s development. The survey’s technical details will provide prospective bidders with a clearer picture of the underwater environment, which will help bidders shape their plans and offers.

The deep-sea survey is expected to offer crucial information concerning prefered routes as well as possible obstacles such as extreme depths, earthquake-prone areas and seabed ruptures.