Arrival of Sonatrach LNG load eases grid’s capacity pressure

Capacity shortage pressure faced by Greece’s electricity grid has been successfully dealt with following yesterday’s arrival of a 130,000 cubic-meter Algerian LNG order at the country’s terminal facility on Revythoussa, the islet just off Athens.

The LNG carrier, which arrived at the facility operated by DESFA, the natural gas grid operator, yesterday morning, to deliver an order placed by the operator’s parent company DEPA, the Public Gas Corporation, to Algeria’s Sonatrach, was fully unloaded by late last night.

The country’s energy system was placed on Level 2 Alert last week, prompting a crisis management team at RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy.

Despite the refill at the Revythoussa facility, local authorities will remain vigilant as a result of a sharp drop in temperatures forecast for later this week.

The energy alert was prompted by the temporary closure of a large number of nuclear power stations in France, causing energy supply problems in the country. This led to wider impact as France needed to draw all spot-market loads in the Mediterranean. As a result, Greece and other countries were unable to secure LNG loads in the market to cover their energy needs. This prompted DEPA to place the emergency 130,000 cubic-meter order with Sonatrach. As a further measure, electricity producers were ordered to cut back on gas consumption.

Electricity contributions by various hydropower stations in Greece, as well as increased renewable energy production, helped overcome the crisis.