Cyclades first phase link ‘ready this week’, new contracts soon

The first phase of the Cyclades interconnection is set to be completed this week with the Mykonos link, while the developers of the wider project’s second phase, to connect Naxos and upgrade existing links between Tinos, Andros and Evia, will be selected in early May, Giannis Margaris (photo), the deputy chief at IPTO, the power grid operator, told conference staged this week by SEV, the Hellenic Association of Industrialists.

Also, next month, IPTO, the power grid operator, plans to announce a tender for the third phase of the Cyclades interconnection, entailing the installation of an additional underwater power cable between Syros and Lavrio, the IPTO deputy noted.

Meanwhile, IPTO is also completing a study concerning the Dodecanese interconnection, whose results will be forwarded to RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, he informed.

A plan for the fourth phase of the Cyclades interconnection, submitted by the operator to RAE in late March, has been included in IPTO’s ten-year development plan covering 2019 to 2028.

IPTO’s investment program includes projects, to be completed by 2021, worth a total of one billion euros, the IPTO deputy told the conference. These concern island interconnections with the mainland grid, upgrading the system, as well as cross-border interconnections, Margaris pointed out.

IPTO is currently pushing ahead with two major interconnection projects, the Cyclades and Crete interconnectons, he said.

The first phase of the Cyclades interconnection, budgeted at 245 million euros, is set to finish by the end of this week with the Mykonos interconnection, he said.  Eleven Cycladic islands are now linked, Margaris said, stressing the importance of EU Multiannual Financial Framework and EIB funding.