The European Commission’s approval of an updated Greek energy-sector support system paves the way for the reimbursement of electricity suppliers who have covered, over the past seven months, state subsidies offered on a monthly basis to farmers and small businesses using up to 35 kVA.

The revised support system will also increase its overall budget by 600 million euros for a total of 1.4 billion euros.

The initial version of Greece’s support system, approved by the European Commission late last year, covered the period running from February to November, 2022.

In the case of small businesses using up to 35 kVA, a category numbering approximately 1.25 million businesses, electricity suppliers also needed to use their own company funds to cover state subsidies announced by the energy ministry for December, 2022 and January, 2023. These subsidies were stopped from the following month onwards.

As for state subsidies offered to farmers, electricity suppliers have needed to cover the cost of support for this vocational category over a longer period. Subsidies for farmers have not been interrupted. They have been set at 15 euros per MWh for June.