TAIPED, Greece’s privatization fund, has failed to have reinstated, on the EU’s project-supporting PCI list, “South Kavala”, an almost depleted natural gas field in the Aegean Sea’s north planned to be transformed into an underground natural gas storage facility (UGS) equipped, with additional features, as a hydrogen storage unit.
The “South Kavala” UGS failed to make a shortlist of hydrogen-related projects to be considered for inclusion on an updated 6th edition of the PCI list.
According to sources, all projects that had not been originally designed for hydrogen-related purposes were disqualified from the PCI shortlist.
The “South Kavala” UGS project’s original plan envisioned its development as a natural gas storage facility before local authorities decided to revise the plan so that the unit could be equipped to also store hydrogen.
The project’s PCI-list exclusion means that gas grid operator DESFA’s bid for inclusion, onto the same list, of a connecting 540-km hydrogen pipeline will also prove fruitless. This pipeline was planned to run from Nea Mesimvria, west of Thessaloniki, to the “South Kavala” UGS.